The Speed Hunter
by Bugz-Toon
Summary: The Speed Hunter follows the adventures of Ryozha Tenryu, a young Hunter who joins up with Gon and Killua for a hunt. Fabled treasure, spies, legendary warriors, haunted castles, commando raids, and lost valleys. Complete and LONG. Reviews welcome.
1. Chapter 1

((AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am in the process of revising this fic quite heavily, so if it has caught your eye thanks to being bumped up to 'newness' because of my edits, please be patient with me; the later chapters are going to change somewhat (and hopefully become significantly more legible) before I'm done))

Ryozha slammed the hotel phone back onto the hook, cracking the tough plastic casing and swearing angrily. "Jerks! Why can't they even answer a simple question? Bah." He spun the chair around and sat moodily in it. -_All my other leads have petered out.-_ he thought to himself, -_Bad Genkopf is almost definitely where the ring is. Sigh. I've fought off forty foot monsters; I've crossed impassable mountain ranges and forded rivers most people can't even get near. I've crossed the ocean on foot, for crying out loud! So why can't I get information out of one witchy old woman or her servants?- _

Ryozha sighed again, this time out loud, and muttered "Maybef it'll be better if I sleep on it. I've been trying to get at that old woman to ask a question for three days now, and I'm no closer than when I started." He shrugged, spun out of the chair, and jogged into the bedroom of his small suite. There, he tumbled into bed without even bothering to change, falling almost instantly into a restless doze.

Just as he was starting to fall into a proper sleep, the telephone rang abruptly. In a single, blurred motion, Ryozha was at the phone, reflexively ripping it loose and spinning to send it flying against the far wall, before his eyes were even all the way open. He then stared groggily at the resulting tangle of metal and plastic shards, scrubbing his hand through his short, spiky brown hair in irritation.

Shrugging, he called the hotel desk on his cellphone. "Uhm... did someone just try to call my room?"

"Yes, little bo... er, Hunter Ryozha." the desk clerk answered. Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper "It was a policeman! He's still waiting on the switchboard. Should I tell him you've run away?"

"No!" Ryozha snapped. "Look, can you just put the call through to my cell? I had... er, an accident with the room phone."

"Yes, yes," the switchboard operator said, "no need to get so upset at me!"

With a brief rattle of switches and an electronic hum, an impatient male voice erupted on the line. "HELLO!? Oh, there is someone here. I'm SO glad." the detective snarled sarcastically.

"Yes, officer." Ryozha said patiently. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Listen, kid," the detective started, then paused. "Is your father or guardian there? We have some questions for whoever's been using this phone to call Ms. Schelling."

"Just me, I'm afraid." Ryozha replied. "I've been calling Ms. Schelling regarding a piece of jewelry that is the partial objective for my current hunt. Is something wrong?"

"Your hunt." the detective stated flatly. "You're trying to tell me you're..."

"Look," Ryozha interrupted, "maybe it would be simpler if I simply met with you face to face. You're at the Spinsterhaus, right?"

"We are at the former residence of Ms. Schelling, yes, but... oh, what the &. I'll send a car to pick you up." the detective grumped. "

No need," answered Ryozha. "I'm standing behind you."

The detective whirled, staring with mingled shock and disbelief at the Hunter who had so suddenly appeared behind him. "B...bb..but... the hotel I reached you at is on the far side of town! How..?" Ryozha ignored the question and handed the detective his Hunter License. The Detective- Lieutenant Renee Gromoff by his badge- calmed down somewhat and took it. He looked it over thoroughly, then dubiously looked the boy who had handed it to him up and down. Ryozha rolled his eyes.

In the nearly two years he'd already been hunting, he'd gotten used to this reaction. He knew what Lieutenant Gromoff was seeing; a slender boy with short brown hair and grey-blue eyes in his early teens, looking more or less like he'd just woken up. He was feeling almost as dubious about the Lieutenant, but thought he was hiding it a bit better. Gromoff was a short- barely taller than Ryozha- broad man with a red face and hair cut so short that its colour was hard to determine. He also, unfortunately, affected a trenchcoat that made him look like a fireplug wrapped in canvas.

Gromoff finally handed Ryozha's card back to him, grunting "You may be a Hunter, alright, kid. But Bad Genkopf is my turf, and this is my case."

Ryozha gave a kind of one-shouldered half shrug and said "Whatever. What happened?"

Detective Gromoff glared at him and gave a kind of inarticulate growling noise, turning even redder. Ryozha watched him impassively, idly contemplating dragging him across town and dumping him in the central fountain, eight miles away. -_I figure I could probably get him there in about half a second or so...-_ he thought, allowing himself a small smirk. Seeing the smirk, the detective almost visibly grabbed onto his self-control and calmed somewhat, refusing to let a 'mere child' get a rise out of him.

"Lady Schelling was assassinated less than half an hour ago. Her lady-in-waiting heard an odd noise just as she left the room after delivering Ms. Schelling's evening tea. She pushed the door back open, and found her ladyship dead in the chair she had been sitting in when the lady-in-waiting came in. Our only clue is the murder weapon itself, a strange kind of pin with a spherical head- it looks a bit like what the local freaks use for body piercing. It was stuck in her throat, and, although she may have slumped as she died, from the angle it may have been thrown through the window."

A pause. "And I know the ring you're talking about- she usually wore it when she came down to the station to complain at me about her neighbours. You can get a list of her effects once the lab boys have finished cataloguing everything, but it didn't look like she was wearing it when I took a look at the crime scene. Looks like your hunt has come to a premature halt, kid." Ryozha looked levelly at the detective for a moment, then, deciding he could get nothing further useful from the man, nodded to him and slouched off down the street.

A short time later, he was leaning on a streetlight in the business district of Bad Genkopf, turning over what to do next in his mind.

As he mused, a snatch of conversation caught his attention. "... but your father certainly is strange."

"Yes, but isn't he interesting? Ging is one of the greatest hunters in the world."

Ryozha's head snapped around. "Ging?" he mumbled. He looked around until he picked out the speakers; they were two boys, about his own age or a little younger. One had pale blue hair and green eyes slitted like a cat's, and moved with the wary grace of a predator. Ryozha was certain that the other boy had even noticed his sudden interest, despite the fact that he was hiding his presence.

The second boy had tall, spiky, almost greenish hair, big brown eyes and looked... well, familiar. A lot like a certain famous Hunter friend of Ryozha's grandfather, in fact. His interest piqued, Ryozha hopped down off the concrete base of the streetlight and walked across the street. He was careful to move at a more normal pace than his usual blurred rush, not wanting to startle the other boys into a confrontation.

Once he had closed the distance a little, he called to them. "Excuse me..." he started, "but are you Gon Freeccs?"

The other two turned to him, and the boy with the spiky hair smiled, nodding and saying "Yeah, I'm Gon, and this is Killua. Who are you?"

The boy who Gon had identified as Killua looked sideways at Ryozha, and added "And how do you know who Gon is, if he doesn't know you?"

Ryozha gave them both a lopsided smile. "Actually, the answer to... Gon said your name was Killua, right? Killua's question is part of my answer to Gon's question. My name is Ryozha; my Grandfather runs a Nen training school in the Belumbia Prefecture, in the northcountry- Quanatta, to be exact. He knows Ging well, and Ging sometimes visits the school. And it seemed that every time he visited, when he saw me, he would talk about Gon, since we're close to the same age. He always seemed to regret having left you with his cousin, but at the same time, he didn't know how he could hunt with a child following him. What Killua said earlier is true; Ging is a bit of a strange one."

Killua gave a little half-snort, half-laugh and nodded, apparently satisfied, while Gon's eyes went wide. "Wow," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, "you know Ging better than I do... that's kind of weird."

"Well," Ryozha commented, his eyes twinkling, "no-one ever accused Ging of being ordinary. But what are you guys doing here? Bad Genkopf is a long way from Whale Island."

Gon explained that the two of them were Pro Hunters, in Bad Genkopf searching for a lost Faberge Egg rumoured to be in the area; it was more of a 'fun' hunt than anything serious. "But what are you doing here, Ryozha?" asked Gon.

"Well..." Ryozha hesitated, then shrugged. "I'm on a hunt for a key."

Killua blinked, and looked a little skeptical, but before he could say anything, Gon said excitedly "A key? What to?" Ryozha glanced around. He didn't see anyone, but something was making him uneasy. He could tell that Killua, while outwardly relaxed, could sense something too. "Let's walk around, and I'll tell you." Ryozha said, motioning for the other two to follow him. He set off, but tension made his control slip slightly, and he found himself moving at his normal pace, leaving the other two far behind.

As soon as he noticed, he raced back to the other two, who had stumbled to a stop once he vanished from sight. He tried to hurry them along, feeling hostile presences closing in, but even Killua seemed stunned by the speed he had suddenly displayed. "How did you do that?" Gon asked.

"Look, it's just part of my Nen. Come on!" Ryozha urged.

"Too late." smirked a voice from behind them.

Several large figures separated themselves from the shadows, surrounding the three boys. "Alright, kids. Hand over your hunter licenses if you want to live."

Killua snorted contemptuously. "Yeah, right. Like you're going to let us live once you have the licenses. If you're going to lie, you should at least learn to do it more convincingly than that." He paused, and smirked back. "New deal. Run away now if YOU want to live." The thug leader growled, and he was suddenly surrounded by the glow of a Nen aura. His cronies followed suit, advancing menacingly on the boys.

Ryozha pulled out his jointed staff, and noticed Killua producing two yo-yos. Gon simply shouted "First comes Rock! Jan, Ken, Pon... ROCK!", while cocking his fist and charging the thug nearest him. There was a thunderous crash, a flare of Nen, and the thug was hurled away in what Ryozha judged to be a nearly flat trajectory, about sixty feet up and still rising when he passed out of sight.

The other five thugs paused at that, and Ryozha struck without warning, hitting his target thirty-eight times before he had time to blink, and hitting him a further twenty-nine before he hit the ground, just for good measure. Killua, meanwhile, went straight for the gang's leader, striking him with a flying kick, followed by a yo-yo cross-up that laid him out right there. Amazingly, he struggled up onto one elbow, spat blood and shouted "Your weapons, you fools! Use your... ungh...", folding up as Killua shocked him unconscious.

The remaining three thugs started, shaking themselves loose from the shock of seeing three young boys demolishing a trio of full-grown fighters, and produced a variety of weaponry- one a gun, one a pair of short-handled scythes, and the last a billy club. All handled their weapons with the assurance brought by long experience; Ryozha, Killua and Gon glanced at one another. Then Gon and Killua looked at each other, obviously uncertain, since they didn't know Ryozha. Ryozha hesitated also, but the matter was settled when the man with the scythes went straight for him. Killua got the gunner after him, and Gon wound up facing the club-wielding man.

Ryozha swung his staff at the scyther, but kept half an eye on Killua's opponent, unsure if he should have gone after the gunman. The next few seconds cured him of that; the scythe-thug's hands blurred, and Ryozha nearly lost his head. He focussed in, blocked a half-dozen strikes in as many microseconds, and then backpedaled... er, Ryozha style, ending up on the far side of the street in the blink of an eye. Then he favoured his opponent with a half-smile, pulling his headphones up from around his neck and putting them on. The scyther paused, obviously wary of some kind of new attack, but Ryozha simply grinned and hit play.

Back on the other side of the street, Killua was dodging bullets. The gunman sneered at him. "These are Nen bullets, little boy. You can dodge as long as you like; I'm not going to run out of ammo, but you're eventually going to get tire...ungh."

"You're not going to run out of ammo, but you are going to take your eyes off me long enough to mock me." Killua commented from behind him, drawing his hand back from the karate chop he'd just delivered.

The gunman whirled, yelling "Fiery Pistol Whip!" as his suddenly blazing pistol whipped 'round, trying to catch Killua in the head with it.

Killua darted backwards, stopping a few feet away and slapping out his smouldering shirt. "Huh. Seems I've underestimated you." he said. The gunman snarled and started forward, firing as he came and trying to force Killua up against a wall or lamppost.

Meanwhile, a short distance away, Gon and his opponent were shattering windows twenty feet away with shockwaves as they hammered on one another. "So..." Gon began, "You're... a... reinforcement user... too, eh?" The two separated a bit, and both paused for breath. "But why'd... you... guys... ergh... put so much of your Nen... in your weapons?" Gon asked.

"Simple..." his opponent gasped, "they're... more powerful... this way, and so are we... since we wield them." "Oh!" Gon exclaimed.

"I understand... kinda." He looked at the club wielder. "Ready to keep going?" "AAAARGH!" screamed the club wielder in response as he closed the distance between them in a split second, bringing his billy club in low and hard.

About a hundred miles away and 10,000 feet above, the occupant of a small private airship was turning a ring set with a strangely cut stone over and over. Every so often he would push Nen into it, resulting in an amorphous flash of Nen-light reflected in dead black eyes. His expression never changed, but their was a sense of frustration about him. He continued to turn the ring over and over in his hands, examining the Nen-flash from every angle, as his airship mounted higher into the deepening twilight.

Back on the street, Gon was pressing his opponent hard, managing to stay in too close for the billy club to be really effective. The club-thug's swings had already created several craters in the sidewalk and dented one of the streetlights so badly that it was almost falling over, but his nimbler opponent simply dodged them and closed in again, hammering him time after time with his rock fist.

At the same time, the battle between Killua and the gunman had moved further down the street, as the gunner laid down an apparently wild pattern of fire that somehow neatly bracketed the former assassin, forcing Killua back. Or at least, seeming to force him back. As they reached the intersection, Killua suddenly darted around the corner, vanishing in a fading flurry of footsteps.

The gunman hesitated, then grunted, half to himself, "I hope you don't think that's a new trick, kid..." as he proceeded to blast through the corner, hosing the area a step or two around the corner with fire. A shadow detached itself from the deeper shadows of the building's rooftop and dropped, unnoticed, towards the gunman. The gunner abruptly noticed the thin, wire-whipping noise just audible above his gunfire, and jerked upwards, trying to adjust his aim in time.

"Don't worry," Killua said as he landed on the gun-wielding thug who was hopelessly entangled in his yo-yo wires, "I don't."

Simultaneously, a short distance down the street, the scyther was advancing on Ryozha, who seemed oblivious to him, his eyes closed as the thunderous strains of "O Fortuna" filled his ears, accelerated to nearly a thousand times it's original speed. Ryozha's eyes snapped open as he adjusted, his senses accelerating to perceive the music at its normal speed. The world around him seemed fuzzy, drops of sweat beading from the scythe-wielder's brow hanging in a frozen trail air behind him as he rushed forwards. Ryozha stared, giving a low whistle of amazement, causing the thug to wince as the hypersonic vibrations, far above hearing range, assaulted his eardrums. The scythe-thug was actually moving visibly, even to Ryozhan's accelerated vision! He shrugged, and moved forwards in a blazing Nen aura, fighting inertia and trailing flickers of friction flame. His jointed staff moved, crashing into his enemy at supersonic speeds, seemingly from dozens of angles at once.

After about an apparent minute of speed-time later, Ryozha noticed that his opponent's expression had changed, to one of intense concentration. Then, without warning, one of the scythes moved, ever so slightly, and at just the wrong moment, snagging between sections of the jointed staff and yanking Ryozha off his feet as he tried to dart around to strike again. The boy could only watch in horror, jerked out of the intense concentration needed for his speed awareness, as things around him sped up, and his enemy's other scythe swept up, blazing with Nen.

Amidst the crackle of electricity and mingled smell of ozone and burning flesh, Killua suddenly noticed that his opponent was smiling. He frowned, double-checking the location of his opponent's gun hand. His frown deepened when he saw that the gun was pointed away from him, and so tangled that it couldn't possibly point at him. Then he jerked as something whistled past his head, cutting his ear and setting it bleeding. He lunged back, concentrating his Nen into his eyes to shift his vision to Gyo, and swore as he saw the thug's aura bristling with tiny spikes, several of which detached themselves and fired at him. He leapt back again, losing his grip on his yo-yos, and watching in fury as his opponent immediately shoved himself up, untangling himself as his aura continued to fling tiny bullet-spikes at Killua. He kicked the yo-yos clear, and then he smiled at Killua, a cold, hard smile... that kind of lost its effect as he coughed up smoke. Killua flew in with eye-watering speed while he coughed, but before he could reach his opponent, he had already brought his pistol up and blasted a virtual wall of bullets at Killua.

Gon's opponent, meanwhile, was in trouble. He was starting to hear things cracking where Gon's fists struck, and finally, in desperation, yelled "Whirling Club Fury!", and brought his billy club around in a shrieking triple circle. Gon ducked under the first two, but then, unable to drop any lower without digging, held his ground and countered the third, strongest strike. There was a blinding flare of Nen, and when it cleared, the green hunter had vanished through a dust-filled new hole in the wall opposite where they had been fighting.

His opponent came out of the spin and stumbled to a halt, panting. He grimaced and clutched his side as a particularly deep gasp jarred something that felt broken, and was probably at least cracked. He heard a crash and a shout behind him, hurled himself around, then collapsed, retching, as the world spun around him, then faded to black. A few seconds later, there was a shout and a blaze of orange-yellow Nen, and Gon came hurtling out the hole in a flying kick, only to roll to a confused stop as he met with no resistance whatsoever. He glanced around, and started to run towards where Killua was being shot at.

There, Killua was being forced to use every trick he knew to avoid the Nen-bullets; already he was bleeding in more than a dozen places from near misses. He had been trying to work his way around to his yo-yos so that he would have his weapons again, but his foe seemed to be expecting that, and every move in that direction was met with a hail of Nen-fire. Finally, he had given up on his yo-yos, and focussed on dodging, scanning his surroundings and alert to any opportunity. Finally, the opportunity came when he bumped up against the lamppost that had been nearly severed where Gon and his enemy had been fighting. Taking a precious second from dodging, Killua grabbed the lamppost and heaved downwards with all his strength. The gunman, caught off guard, was smashed to the ground as the lamppost buckled and crashed on top of him. Then, with a flare of blue light and the actinic smell of burning ozone, Killua pumped as much power as he could muster into the feebly writhing gunner.

Nearly a kilometre away, Ryozha was growing desperate; with every move he made, his opponent seemed to grow faster, his scythes moving in blurs even to Ryozha's accelerated vision. Finally, Ryozha poured on a frantic burst of speed, separating from his opponent long enough to shift into Gyo; concentrating, he could just see faint, tenuous tendrils of Nen connecting him to the scythe wielder. His opponent charged, shrieking forward at near-supersonic speeds, and Ryozha felt a sudden drag on his own limbs; he moved, racing backwards, and saw the faint Nen-tendrils brighten, siphoning his power into his enemy.

He shuddered at that, then relaxed a little -_Okay, this may not be as hard as I thought.- _Leaping forward and closing the space between them, he met his opponent's flashing swing with an extended fingertip. There, with a flare of golden Nen-light, the scythe slowed, and nearly stopped. The scythe wielder, undeterred by this, brought his other scythe around in a blazing arc, trailing friction flame. Ryozha's half-smile became a full, evil grin, and he touched the incoming scythe. The scythe wielder yelled as his weapon abruptly burst into flame, melting and deforming like wax. He dragged his remaining scythe away from Ryozha's Nen-grip, noticing to his consternation that Ryozha's formerly pure golden aura was now shot with thick streaks of red Nen as well. He moved back warily, and, when Ryozha didn't use whatever new power he was displaying, charged forwards, hand, feet and scythe blurring in a complicated sweep.

Ryozha met each with a flare of golden Nen wherever they happened to hit, not even bothering to block, aside from the scythe, which he met with another extended fingertip on the handle. "Whoever sent you chose an excellent counter to my Nen abilities." Ryozha told him "However, they didn't do their homework completely." He met another, far slower swing with his staff, not even bothering to absorb it's power this time. A couple more kicks and strikes were met with indifferent shrugs and flares of golden Nen. The scythe wielder slowed and simply stood, staring, as Ryozha moved towards him in a fiery blaze of scarlet Nen, undershot with streaks of gold.

"You're very strong, I have to admit," he said, "but there's one ability of mine that you didn't know about... although I guess I don't exactly advertise it." -_After all, why would I want to lessen the advantage that my special ability gives me? Being able to use my enemy's movement... kinetic energy, whatever... to supercharge my Nen, or else simply to store the energy, is a nasty surprise for just about anyone. I can even make things super-hot by accelerating their molecular motion- things like scythes._- "Not to put too fine a point on it, but you're pretty much screwed. So- do you want to surrender now?"

The thug swore at him and leapt, bringing his scythe around in an unstoppable arc. Ryozha gave a one-shouldered shrug and casually dodged behind him, then grabbed him by the belt and back of his collar, accelerating him to more than two hundred miles an hour in an eyeblink and continuing the spin, hurling the screaming thug, spinning, into the side wall of a building, which partially caved in on him.

Ryozha turned to find Killua and Gon watching him, Gon in wide-eyed amazement, and Killua with a more calculating look on his face. "Oh, hi guys." he said. "Hang on a second... I need to burn off some of this power- I'm holding too much to be comfortable."

Gon started to nod, while Killua simply looked at him, but Ryozha was already gone, thousands of miles away in an eyeblink. A few minutes later, he came back at (what was for him) an easy jog. The blazing red Nen-inferno had died down to a secondary aura, about equal to the gold Nen that was Ryozha's natural aura.

"How did you do that?" asked Gon.

"Who do you think those idiots were?" asked Killua, ignoring Gon's question.

"Well, at first I thought they were just more hired muscle out to steal our hunter licenses..."

"Nah. Too strong for that." Killua interrupted.

Ryozha gave him an annoyed glance. "I know that now, of course- as soon as they revealed their Nen, I could tell they were far stronger than hired thugs... although their technique of putting almost all their Nen into their weapons was certainly odd."

"Then it's probably something to do with your hunt, Ryozha." Gon said.

"True." added Killua, "A lost Faberge egg is valuable, but nothing special... any decent Pro Hunter could find it. The key to... something..." He paused, and looked at Ryozha.

Ryozha raised an eyebrow, but said "The key to a legendary treasure- one of the biggest the world has ever known."

Killua nodded and said "That could attract all kinds of crazy people."

"Yeah," continued Ryozha. "also, that was kind of a lame excuse to attack us... guys that strong could easily get their own Hunter license."

The three boys moved out of Bad Genkopf's business district, heading for Gon and Killua's hotel, at Gon's invitation. Ryozha had said he would pick up his things from his hotel later, after he arranged his checkout by phone; his room was bound to be watched if the thugs who had attacked them were indeed interested in his hunt. Gon happily agreed to that, while Killua gave his special 'I don't like it, don't really trust you yet, but I have no choice' shrug. Ryozha, perfectly aware what he was thinking (it wasn't as if he was trying to hide it, after all), gave him an amused half-smile.

"If it makes you uncomfortable, Killua, I can always find another place to stay." he said, calling the other boy out.

Killua looked taken aback, slightly shocked that Ryozha would simply confront him with it like that. Gon looked upset, and hastened to say "No, no, we don't mind at all, do we Killua?"

Killua, looking irritated, simply nodded. Ryozha winced a little, then smiled and reassured Gon that he would be happy to stay with them. -_Shoot,-_ he thought, -_I just meant to push Killua a bit, to try and get him over the fact that he's sharing a room with someone he doesn't really know. I didn't mean to hurt Gon's feelings...-_

He half-shrugged again, this time to himself, as he called the hotel he had just been staying at. -_Oh well. There's nothing I can do about it now.-_ His phone, bouncing through the specially prepared dummy relay he had paid an electronics company a small fortune to set up, reached his old hotel's front desk.

"Hello," the desk clerk said, picking up the phone, "Genkopfia Hotel reception. How may I help..?" she got as far as saying, before she was interrupted by an ear-shattering squeal of static.

Ryozha allowed himself some small, secret satisfaction as the desk clerk (who had been annoying him the entire time he stayed there, making stupid jokes and treating him like a child playing a game) gave a sort of audible wince.

"Hello?" he half-shouted through the static storm.

"What?" yelled the clerk into the phone.

"Hello?" he said again, then, without waiting for an answer, went on to say "This is Ryozha the Hunter. Something has come up unexpectedly; I've had to travel to Pyotokia."

"What?!" exclaimed the desk clerk, "Pyotokia? But that's halfway around the world! It takes..."

Ryozha cut her off. "I know; Hunters have certain... resources available to them when needed. But that doesn't matter. I want you to send my things to the Bad Genkopf Arms Inn, to room 203. Some hunter friends of mine are staying there and will be traveling shortly to catch up with me."

"But..." shouted the desk clerk through the rising static storm, "Pyotokia is halfway around the world! How did..."

Ryozha cut her off again, his patience wearing even thinner. "Room 203 of the Bad Genkopf Arms Inn. You got that?"

"But..." began the desk clerk, then sighed "Yes, littl... sir." she said, getting one last dig in. Ryozha frowned and snapped his phone shut sharply.

"All right," he announced, "my things should be getting here shortly."

"Fine," said Gon, "but why were you yelling?"

"Yeah," said Killua, "I was wondering the same thing. Is your phone that cheap?" Ryozha looked at Killua, one eyebrow raised. -_He's really baiting me,-_ he thought, -_But... what can I do about it? It's only been a few hours, but already I worry about hurting Gon's feelings... I even kind of like Killua, simply because he's Gon's friend. It's weird...-_

Aloud, he said "Actually, that feature cost me a lot to set up. A special satellite router makes it seem as if I'm calling from... well, from anywhere I want to seem to be calling from. In this case I picked Pyotokia, because it's as far away from here as I could think of off the top of my head. I'm hoping that whoever's tracing me will simply take off for there, leaving me to work unhindered." Before Killua could comment, he added "I know they'll probably place a tracer in my bag, but that doesn't matter, since for now it's going exactly where they think it's going- to your room."

Killua looked sidelong at Gon. "Hey Gon. Remember Hisoka's system for determining an opponent's Nen type?" he said out of the corner of his mouth, but still loud enough for Ryozha to hear quite clearly. Gon nodded, looking at him oddly. "Well, now I REALLY see what he meant about Manipulation users liking to lecture people!"

Ryozha twitched slightly, glaring at Killua, who gave him a cat's grin. After a tense few seconds exchanging glares, he started to laugh. "Okay, I guess I deserved that." he said. Gon started to laugh too, and, after a moment, Killua joined in.

After they'd settled down, Killua asked "But seriously, why'd you pick Pyotokia?"

"Eh?" answered Ryozha. "I dunno. It was just a random country far away from here."

"Oh." said Killua.

"Hey Killua," Gon said, "Isn't Pyotokia where your family lives? That IS where Kukuru Mountain is, I'm pretty sure... Isn't it?" He looked at Killua, who was kind of groaning, and looking at Ryozha.

"Kukuru Mountain?" Ryozha said. "Killua... Killua... Killua Zaoldyeck? OH! Of course... wish the Hunter Website would update their photographs a little more often, though... the latest one they've got, you look about nine, and it's REALLY fuzzy, to boot." He met Killua's stare. "What are you looking at me like that for?"

Killua calmed himself a little, and answered, "Well... when most people find out about my family, they want to try and get the reward for turning us in, or get revenge or something."

Ryozha looked at him for a moment longer, then half-shrugged. "Maybe. But I'm not a black-list Hunter; I'm a treasure hunter... and honestly, Killua. I'm NOT your enemy. At least, I don't want to be." His mouth twisted in a half-amused, half-rueful smile. "Besides, I know a little bit about your family. Out of all of them, having seen you fight, I MIGHT be able to take you on. But you're **way** stronger than I am, and I don't really think I could win. And from what I've heard, your brothers... some of them, anyways... father and grandfather are all much stronger than you, at least right now."

Ryozha wandered over to a patch of floor that was wide enough and lay down on his back, stretching a little. He propped his head in his hands, and watched as Killua relaxed slightly. Gon, who had been watching the strangely tense scene with a worried expression on his face, grinned.

"Hey," he said, trying to break the tension completely, "we're about to practice our Ten and Ren. Do you want to join us, Ryozha?"

Ryozha glanced over to Gon, and gave him his usual lopsided grin. "Sure," he said, and was abruptly on his feet, without any apparent intervening motion. Killua jumped a little, and Gon laughed. Soon, all three of them were standing in a circle in the Hotel room, glowing gently with Nen-light.

About two minutes later, Ryozha abruptly sat down, causing the other two to lose concentration. They looked at him oddly, but Gon said "What's wrong, Ryozha?"

Ryozha's mouth twisted in a rueful half-smile. "I don't know if this was such a good idea after all... I've done every Nen exercise I know at least three times, and made up two new ones." Gon looked shocked, and Killua blinked, seeming a little stunned.

Ryozha paused, and looked at them. "I'm sorry... I guess I didn't explain very well. When my Nen is activated, I have a really hard time working at normal speed... I just automatically go really fast. For EVERYTHING."

Killua stared at him, and Gon looked at him, leaned back a little and put his hands behind his head. "That's kind of cool... but it does make it hard for you to practice Ten and Ren with us."

Ryozha nodded, looking a bit glum, then brightened. "I know- why don't I run and get some snacks, and maybe find some information on those guys who attacked us while you practice?" Gon smiled, and started to make a motion that might have been a nod. That was enough for Ryozha- he was halfway across town before Gon had finished the movement.

Five minutes later he was seated in an Internet Cafe at a computer with a bag of nachos open next to him. His fingers blurred as he typed, and then he stopped. The smell of burning circuitry wafted past his nostrils, and he looked down. -_Aw, MAN! Not again...- _The keyboard was rapidly turning into a small puddle of melting goo. He glanced around, then, sure that no one had seen him, wandered over to the manager to complain about his keyboard melting. The manager apologized profusely and gave him his money back, which he pocketed, then ambled out the door. Once he was out of sight, he blurred away at impossible speeds, muttering to himself. Finally, after some thought, he decided to retrieve his laptop from his old hotel room.

Glancing around, he realized that he had come a great distance from Bad Genkopf. He was in the deep woods in the foothills of the mountains that surrounded the little city. Reorienting himself as best he could, he slipped back into speed mode, sliding his headphones up and hitting random play. Racing forwards, he felt a strange tug at his limbs. The trees were blurring past with eye-watering speed, but something seemed off. He paused, and glanced down at himself. No snakey tendrils infected his golden Nen-aura... he looked again. His aura was pure gold! All the extra energy he had absorbed earlier in the evening had burned off.

He sighed. Looking down across the mountains, he guessed that it was going to take him close to half an hour to get back... by which point Gon and Killua would be finished their Nen-practice, his luggage would have arrived, and his Laptop would be ready to go. -_Okay,-_ he thought -_maybe this wasn't such a bad thing to happen. And I can't believe I absorbed so much Kinetic Power from just that one guy... maybe that's why I've been so jittery tonight!_ _Oh well- may as well get started.-_ He raced off, leaving nothing but a brief swirl in the cool evening air.

As he jogged gently up the street towards the hotel, the sun was setting and a light mist was rising from the ground. He let his Nen drop slightly, and shivered- it was colder than he had thought. A chilly breeze swirled the mist into strange shapes, and he glared around, almost- and here he mentally laughed at himself- almost daring something to jump out and attack him.

After a few seconds, nothing did, but he couldn't shake the feeling of being watched by an unfriendly presence. He hesitated, but he was already too close to the hotel to deceive anyone as to his destination. He slipped in on silent feet, blurring up the stairs like a hyperkinetic ghost. He paused at Gon and Killua's door... -_Mine, too, for now, I guess...-_ he thought to himself... and listened intently, reaching out with a feather-gentle probe. -_I can't sense any unfriendly presences. At least, no OTHER unfriendly presences, and that one doesn't seem to be inside the hotel,_- he thought. -_But I do hear... laughter?- _He slipped into the room, feeding a trickle of his Nen into the door so it whipped silently open and shut in an eyeblink, speeding inside without the faintest sound.

Killua and Gon both glanced around. "Oh, hey Ryozha!" Gon called out cheerfully.

"Why didn't you tell us you had a laptop... and with such cool games on it!" Killua enthused. Ryozha wandered over to where the two of them were sitting on the floor, banging away on the keyboard of his laptop and staring, enthralled at the colourful graphics.

"Er... when..?" he began, an odd expression on his face.

Gon looked around again. "Oh, I'm sorry Ryozha! I just thought... er, we just thought you wouldn't mind very much..." his voice trailed off. "It's okay, isn't it?" he asked anxiously.

"It's fine, Gon," Ryozha hastened to assure him. He paused, and rubbed the back of his neck, letting out his breath in a long sigh. -_After all, it's been a busy night..._- He gave Gon a lopsided grin, that quickly spread into a genuine, unforced grin. "But you'd better reset it for three players!"

Some time later that night, once Gon had tired of the game and wandered off, and Killua had sat back to sulk after being beaten seven games out of ten, Ryozha settled down for some serious searching. His laptop glowed gently with imbued Nen, and his fingers rapped out a staccato beat that rose in speed until it was nearly a whine. After a minute or two, he sat back abruptly.

"Aargh!" he yelled. "I can't find ANYTHING! This is stupid- I've searched more than twenty thousand sites without anything concrete at all." He spun around to stalk over to the fridge, and tripped over Killua's feet, tumbling into Gon and bringing all of them down in a heap. They pried themselves loose, and sat back.

Ryozha was still grumbling, but the other two were too busy staring at him to notice. "Doesn't it mean that the computer is broken when the screen just flashes like that?" Killua asked, while, at the same time, Gon wanted to know "How can you read anything at all when it's going by so fast?"

Ryozha glanced at them and blew out his breath in an exasperated sigh. "It's not flashing, Killua, it's just display... ing... really... fast."

His voice trailed off, and he stared at Gon. "You could actually tell that those were words!?" he demanded, staring at the younger boy.

Gon simply looked back at him. "Well, yeah..." he said, rubbing the back of his neck and looking embarrassed. "Shouldn't I have been able to?"

"No... no, it's not that." Ryozha said. "It's just that..."

"Gon has amazing eyesight." interrupted Killua, who had clearly regained some of his composure.

Ryozha transferred his stare to Killua. "He must have... But I still can't find anything on this stupid pin other than rumours and speculation! It's driving me crazy!" He slammed the laptop shut with a bang and a flare of pale peach-coloured Nen and flopped onto his back.

Gon and Killua looked at him oddly, and Killua asked "Pin?"

Ryozha rolled onto his side and looked at him. "Yeah, there was this strange looking pin that was used to kill the old woman who had information I needed for my hunt."

Ryozha found himself tensing a bit as Killua's focus suddenly sharpened on him. "A strange looking pin used in an assassination?" he demanded, leaning forward.

"Y... yeah..." Ryozha stammered, staring back into Killua's eyes... eyes whose pupils had shrunk to black pinpricks as his stare became a glare of almost mindless killing intent.

Abruptly, Killua backed off a bit. "Sorry," he said. "but mention of my brother always makes me tense." Ryozha made a slightly strangled, confused noise as his eyebrow tried to climb past his hairline.

Gon, meanwhile, just looked confused, then he brightened. "Ah, of course! Illumi. He uses pins, doesn't he?" he looked at Killua with smiling confidence, and Ryozha cringed inwardly. -_If Killua nearly kills me accidentally just for mentioning a pin that might be connected to his brother, what's going to happen to Gon?_- The look of profound shock on Ryozha's face deepened even more when Killua just looked at Gon and nodded with a small smile.

"Yes," he said, "my oldest brother makes his kills with strange pins with bulky, round heads." The smile faded utterly as Killua continued "He's DEADLY dangerous. If he has the ring... and it's likely he does, if she always wore it; it would be proof of the kill... then it won't be easy to get it back from him."

Ryozha looked at him steadily, still wary, when a sudden thought made him groan and sink onto his back again. "Oh, no!" he moaned, slapping his forehead "Don't tell me I'm REALLY going to Pyotokia!"

Late the next day, far out on the ocean and chasing the edge of night, Ryozha skimmed the restless surf on pounding feet, sending twin sheets of wake-plume high into the air to fall as a fine mist nearly a hundred miles behind him. Every so often, he would break his hair-fine focus to glance down at the small GPS locator unit in his watchband, to make sure he was still headed in the right direction. Beneath the preternatural calm forced on him by his intense focus, though, his thoughts were churning, as anticipation, satisfaction, and worry all clawed for dominance. Anticipation, at the moment, was winning; his thoughts drifted back to his last conversation with Gon and Killua.

--

"We'll come with you right now, Ryozha!"

"We can't, Gon- remember we promised to find the Egg for our client within two weeks? We'd never make it to my house and back in time. Anyways, my house is easy to find, Ryozha; it's near the peak on the highest part of Kukuru Mountain. It's also a major tourist destination, for some stupid reason."

Yes, I know that already, Killua. Do you have any advice on how to get in?

"Not really... I've never heard of anyone coming there just to ask if a piece of jewelry was taken."

"Mr. Goto will help!"

"You're probably right, Gon. If you can reach Goto, he can advise you on what to do. I'll call him and tell him you're coming, although I can't promise how much help he'll be. It's really up to Illumi what happens."

"Oh! Tell Mr. Goto I said hello... tell Mr. Zai Bu-Lon and Kanaria that as well. Oh, uhm... Mr. Zai Bu-Lon is the gatekeeper at the entrance of Killua's family's land, and Kanaria is the intern that guards the first gate."

Heh... All right, Gon... man, I'm going to have to write this down...

"One last thing, Ryozha. You said that the assassination happened two nights ago, just before you met us? Right... then Illumi won't get back to Kukuru Mountain for at least another five days."

All right- I'll finish my research here in Bad Genkopf- I need to make certain that the ring is really gone, so I need to visit the police station, and also to search the house, just in case. I'll leave tonight.

--

He hadn't seen Gon and Killua again that day or the next- they had left into the countryside to find the lost Faberge Egg- and the visit to the Police Station and further 'net research had proved fruitless. He left his two new friends a note in the hotel room as the evening of the second day drew close, and sped out onto the open road, heading inexorably West. A song fragment wafted through his consciousness, and he whistled snatches of it as he raced off into the dusk.

The same song fragment woke in the back of his mind, jerking him back to the present. He frowned as he ran, focussing on it for a second. Then he started to laugh. Still laughing, he reached up and pulled his headphones into place. Skipping through songs, he found the appropriate one. The music started, and Bono's voice came crystal clear through his headset... "I have climbed... the highest mountain... I have run... through the fields..." the song began. A minute later, Ryozha warbled along with the chorus, "But I stiiiill haven't found... what I'm looking for..." Still chuckling, he sped off through the night, steadily catching up with the day that had left him behind.

Nearly six hours later, Ryozha casually ambled up the central street of the small city at the base of Kukuru Mountain, looking for a suitable hotel. George Shearing's "The Lullaby of Birdland" spun giddily out of his headphones, and he had to admit that after running halfway around the world, even he was feeling tired. A half-smile played across his lips as his last thought replayed itself... -_"Even I was feeling tired"... oy. I must be tired to be thinking crap like that..._- He glanced up at the sign of the inn he found himself standing in front of, and shrugged. -_Close enough. That's it for me for tonight... er, this morning... bleah, whatever._-

The next morning, he drifted (at considerable speed) back along the train tracks to the larger town where the airships landed. Blurring into the tower at invisible speeds, he glanced over the air traffic controller's manifests. He then slipped back outside and slowed to visibility, frowning intensely. -_I should have known it wouldn't be easy. The Zaoldyeck family obviously doesn't like ANYONE knowing their movements, even for something so innocuous as returning to their own well-fortified home. Best guess is that Illumi is arriving in the 'field must remain open for maintenance' slot two days from now. There's nothing else at all that could possibly be him. Of course, I could be wrong about his speed... or he might not even be going straight home... grr... I hate playing these kinds of games_.-

Ryozha glanced around, but if anyone had noticed a young boy with his face contorted in a snarl, they were polite enough not to comment. He moved on again, just in case. The men who had attacked him, Killua and Gon couldn't reach Pyotokia ahead of Illumi, but there was no guarantee that they didn't have accomplices or confederates already in place. With that cheerful thought, he decided to visit the trainyards back at Kukuru Mountain village to absorb kinetic energy. -_After all, that's still probably the best place to do it- I can pull a LOT of kinetic power from one train without anybody really noticing... they have so much just 'cos they're so incredibly heavy._- He grinned to himself, and zipped off towards the trainyards.

--

A couple of thousand of miles from him, in a darkened basement, two powerful men were meeting. Both entered the room from opposite sides at precisely the same instant, leaving their bodyguards outside. No greeting was exchanged, but their locked stares spoke volumes. The one was short and wiry, with long, curly hair and a strange grace and utter confidence in his movements that belied his small stature.

The other was so utterly average that you wouldn't give him a second glance even if he was alone in a room, and likely not even a first. At least, unless you happened to notice his eyes in an unguarded moment. They spoke of a soul not born to command, but of a soul who had reached out and taken it, battling through chaos and hell to grasp it in an iron grip. It was a measure of the other man's strength that he could meet those eyes without flinching, and a measure of his power that he could do so without even blinking. They both sat at the heavy table set in the centre of the room, again at precisely the same instant. Their stares remained locked, until the taller man spoke. Given the utter averageness of the man, hearing his voice was always something of a shock, although, in retrospect, his clipped tones and abrupt manner of speaking fit him perfectly.

"Your patrons are concerned. When they are concerned, tremendous amounts of money are at stake and the balance of power is threatened. What is the cause of it?" were his words. The other man's eyebrow rose in amusement, and he smiled slightly. "To the point as always, neh?" he asked. His opposite gazed at him with contempt, letting him feel the full force of his gaze. The smaller man returned the look with apparent equanimity, although a canny observer might imagine that his smile had flickered very slightly.

The taller man spoke again. "Do not toy with me. I know what my position is. I know too much, but your masters are willing to let me remain unopposed so long as I am less trouble alive than dead. They are no fonder of upheaval than I am."

The small enforcer gazed back at him, his eyebrow raised again, this time in apparent respect. "As canny as ever, also, I see. Very well; the games have been abandoned, although I like to imagine that you are as fond of them as I." he paused, and the other man, on cue, snorted contemptuously.

The smaller man allowed himself a secret smile, and continued. "There are rumours in the community that the self-proclaimed 'Speed Hunter' has been set on the trail of the Treasure. Personally, I do not believe that he will be able to find it; there have been too many working for too long to erase all mention of it for it to be easily found. However, according to what records I have been able to find, he is persistent, and has a habit of being lucky. Also, a disturbing... rumour has reached me. You have taken steps to remove what you perceived as a threat to our joint well being, if the rumours are correct. Are they?"

The taller man focussed his gaze, stabbing into the small enforcer with the full power of his personality, and the smaller man wondered uneasily, not for the first time, if his counterpart was an unconscious Nen-user. The Mafia boss held the small enforcer writhing within his burning glare for a full twenty-second eternity before he spoke. "I have hired the Zaoldyeck clan to take the life of the old woman who ran from your order fifty-two years ago, and required that they show me her ring as proof of her death. I then gave them the ring as part of the payment, because it interested them, as I knew it would. They have no way of connecting it with the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate, and no reason to try to connect it. **And nothing... that... enters... Kukuru... Mountain... Fortress... leaves.**"

The smaller man, forcing aside the discomfort he felt from the fearsome glare, smirked, commenting "Well, obviously the Zaoldyecks and their personal effects come and go frequently, but I believe I understand your point. Very well. We will... trust... you on this matter." With these final words, he stood and drew his long dagger in one fluid motion, holding it vertically in front of him. After that, he bowed, then abruptly snapped to a thin blue line behind his dagger, fading from sight like the image on an old television screen.

The Mafia boss he had been meeting with stared at it for a moment, then muttered "Showy." He then, (and, had anyone else been in the room with him, they would have been hard pressed to tell whether he was congratulating himself on his own cleverness or trying to convince himself,) mumbled "But yes... nothing that enters the Fortress of the terrible Zaoldyeck clan leaves."

--

Two and a half days later, a bored and frustrated Ryozha stared up at the Gates of Trial that guarded the entrance to the Zaoldyeck clan's Kukuru Mountain Fortress. Nothing at all had landed at the airport in the "field must remain open for maintenance" slot, and he hadn't even caught a glimpse of a ship that could be Illumi's. Of course, Illumi could have gotten a new airship in the time since Killua had seen him last, but it seemed unlikely. It was also possible that he had chosen another form of transportation, but that was also unlikely, given the distances involved.

Ryozha then slapped his forehead and cursed himself out roundly for wasting time. A seemingly trivial comment from Killua suddenly wrote itself in six-foot-tall letters of fire across his brain, mocking him for wasting his time. "... the mini-airship field behind the house..." Killua's voice echoed from several days ago. -_So,_- he thought to himself, _at least I know how he got past me. Oh well..._- he shrugged. -_They say that the bold are lucky, or something like that... May as well give it a shot._- He glanced down the mountain to make sure that there was no tour bus coming- there wasn't one scheduled, but he'd seen stupider things happen to throw off plans- then marched up to the window of the small gatekeepers hut.

"Excuse me, sir." he addressed the older man sitting in the booth. "Are you Mr. Zai-Bulon?"

The gatekeeper stirred and stood up, glancing around, until his gaze came to rest on Ryozha. He pushed back his cap and rubbed his bald head, scrutinizing Ryozha carefully. "I am," he said at last. "and who is this that comes asking for me by name?"

Ryozha opened his mouth, then paused; "This may be easier if I simply deliver the messages I brought first." he said.

Zai-Bulon raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" was all he said. Ryozha glanced sideways at him, then grinned; apparently the Zaoldyecks trained their servants in psychological combat as well as the more traditional kind. Either that or Zai-Bulon was just a devious old beggar; in either case, Ryozha was amused.

He brought his mind back to the present, and said, "Well, first off, Gon sends his greetings, and said to thank you again for your training- it has really helped him and Killua." Zai-Bulon started, staring at Ryozha. Whatever he had expected, that apparently hadn't been it. Ryozha smiled, but to himself this time. "Also," he continued, "Killua said to tell you 'To need us is to know fear; to know fear is to need us.' I'm assuming you know what he meant." Zai-Bulon sat back heavily, nearly missing his chair. He didn't seem to care, though.

He pulled out a handkerchief and mopped his brow with it. "Master Killua's unique Zaoldyeck family code..." He heaved a sigh. "Well, at least I now have no doubt that you are genuinely coming from him. So... why are you here? And what is your name?"

This time it was Ryozha's turn to glance around. Satisfied, he asked "Is there somewhere we could sit and talk? This might take some time to explain." Zai-Bulon nodded, and motioned him towards the titanic gates that fronted the Zaoldyeck Estate.

He began to remove his jacket, but Ryozha stopped him. "Those are the Gates of Trial, aren't they, Mr. Zai-Bulon?" When Zai-Bulon nodded, Ryozha looked the gates up and down, sizing them up. "There's something I've wanted to try, ever since Killua and Gon told me about these." he said.

Zai-Bulon looked bemused, and said "Be my guest- try anything you like on them." Ryozha gave him a half-smile, but decided against his momentary whim of melting them to slag.

Instead, he summoned up his Nen, a little shocked at the burst of scarlet power that surrounded him. Apparently he had been a little overenthusiastic in absorbing kinetic power at the trainyards... as usual. He cautiously laid a hand on the gates. His two-hundred pound lift, while modestly impressive on a skinny kid, wouldn't even make them twitch. His Nen, on the other hand... He would have to be careful, as he didn't really want to tear them off their hinges and fling them halfway to the house. -_Okay, so that last bit was an exaggeration..._- he thought to himself. -_Let's see- from what Killua and Gon told me, the weight doubles with each door, starting at two tons per door for the first one... that makes the final door... sixty-four tons per side. Hrm. One hundred and twenty-eight tons..._- He grinned to himself. -_Let's see if I can do this._- Carefully positioning his flat palm across the crack between the doors, he let his kinetic-Nen surge, power roaring into the doors and slamming them open to crash against the walls they were hung from in a shower of concrete dust. He then zipped through, pausing only to grab Zai-Bulon.

Once through, he paused just outside the range of the dustfall, both to let Zai-Bulon catch his breath and to check his Nen-reserves. Satisfied that the scarlet-shot-with-gold Nen he was displaying was enough (although there was _significantly_ less red than there had been a moment ago), he looked over at Zai-Bulon, who was staring back at him with a kind of fascinated horror.

"Er... sorry, Mr. Zai-Bulon. I guess I got carried away. I think things might be easier if I assured you that I do not wish to harm the Zaoldyeck family in any way. If we could sit and talk, I can explain why I'm here in more detail." Zai-Bulon hesitated, then shrugged, motioning for Ryozha to follow him. Eventually, they were safely ensconced in Zai-Bulon's kitchen. Ryozha glanced around, noting that there seemed to be another person who lived there, although, from the sense of the house, he wasn't around.

Zai-Bulon brought a pair of mugs full of tea to the table, and set them down. "So," he said "why ARE you here?"

Ryozha looked levelly at him. "It's difficult to explain," he began, "but the short form is that one of the Zaoldyeck clan, probably Illumi, has an item I need for my current hunt. He seems to have taken it as proof of a recent kill."

Zai-Bulon looked at him, and nodded. "It is not an unprecedented request, although it is a highly unusual one. But sit, and tell me what Killua-kun is doing now, and his friend Gon." Ryozha did, filling him in on all that had happened and passing along what Killua and Gon had told him, pausing occasionally to grunt as he strained to lift the heavy mug of tea.

When he had finished, Zai-Bulon hesitated for a long moment, then sighed. "I will defer this matter to Goto, the manager of the estate. Please wait while I telephone him." Ryozha sat back in the kitchen chair, watching as Zai-Bulon left the room. Shortly after, he heard him pick up the telephone and hit a few numbers. -_Probably an extension number,_- Ryozha thought. -_It's a minor point, but it might someday be useful to know that Kukuru mountain is on a single line, like an office building._-

He listened carefully, but Zai-Bulon said exactly what he had claimed he would, and Ryozha couldn't hear Goto's replies clearly. After some time, Zai-Bulon returned. "Well," he said heavily, "he doesn't believe you. And he thinks you lied to Killua, as well. But when I told him about what you did to the Doors of Trial, he didn't know what to think. He is discussing the issue with the masters at this moment. We will see what they decide."

For the next few hours, Ryozha played cards and chatted with Zai-Bulon, amusing himself by seeing how far he could range when the gatekeeper blinked. Finally, the phone rang again. Zai-Bulon picked it up, and gasped. "It is for you, young Hunter..." he said, sounding thoroughly shocked. "It is master Illumi himself."

Ryozha took the phone, nearly dropping it when he found that it was as heavy as everything else in the house. He scrabbled at it for a second, recovered, and said "Hello?" into the phone. "I understand that you want something," said the voice from the other end. "what is it?"

-_I suppose when you kill people for a living, you have little time for niceties._- thought Ryozha. Aloud, he said "What I want is to finish my hunt. To get any further on that hunt than I already have, I need the ring you took from the body of Lady Schelling in Bad Genkopf as proof of your kill." There was a long pause from the other end of the line, during which time Ryozha focussed his attention on the motion of the electrical pulses in the phone line.

It was an odd trick that he had picked up, and one that came dangerously close to violating his pledge to use his Nen solely for the function of controlling and sensing motion. In any case, it worked, and he was able to pin down Illumi's current location with reasonable certainty... or at least, the point where the phone he was speaking into was connected to the telephone network of Kukuru Mountain.

When Illumi finally spoke again, Ryozha was so focussed on the pulse-trace that the voice (and accompanying cascade of tiny electrical pulses that accompanied it) came as a shock so great he nearly dropped the phone again. Illumi stated flatly "If you can reach me, you may have the ring."

Ryozha nodded sharply, then caught himself and said "Fine. I assume that none of your defenses will be disabled, and your people will be warned that I am an intruder?"

"That would be a correct assumption." Illumi responded.

"One moment," Ryozha interjected. "would you be willing to suspend that for a single person? I have been asked to deliver a message for Kanaria, the intern at the first gate, by your brother Killua and his friend."

"Killua has no friends." Illumi responded. "He is a Zaoldyeck, an assassin of the highest calibre; a puppet of darkness bred to do his current employer's will without fear, favour or remorse." He paused. "However, I will do as you ask- Kanaria is a minor part of our security and her impeding or not impeding you should make little difference."

"My thanks," Ryozha told him with angry sarcasm, "but if you ever try passing out that dark puppet garbage around me again, I'm going to perform an enema on you to see if I can find your head."

Illumi ignored him, and, uncaring, repeated, "If you can reach me, you may have the ring." and hung up.

Ryozha bowed politely to Zai-Bulon and raced out of the house, allowing himself to scowl blackly once he was out of sight. He paused and took his bearings. -_Okay... I'm pissed._- he thought. -_Need to blow off some steam before I reach that jerk, or I'll probably do something that'll get me killed. But what..?_- He half-shrugged to himself and zipped off to down the path to where he believed Kanaria to be. -_May as well deliver the message while I've got some time to kill._-

A few seconds later, he came upon a pair of stone pillars flanking the path with a girl of about his own age or a little older standing between them. -_Hmm..._- thought Ryozha. -_Dark skin, thick dreadlocks, strange blue coat, staff with a jewel containing a teddy-bear skull on the end... well, the description matches, anyways._- He decelerated sharply and appeared in front of her.

Her only reaction was a slight widening of her eyes as she shifted fluidly and fired off a series of lightning-fast lunges with her staff. Ryozha leaned slightly a couple of times, effortlessly dodging, but nevertheless impressed with her speed, doubly so in that it didn't appear to be Nen-enhanced at all! Remembering something that Gon had mentioned, he backed off slightly, stopping behind a faded line in the dirt. His antagonist stopped also, settling easily into a waiting stance, her eyes staying alert not only on him, but on her surroundings as well. Ryozha gave her a rueful half-smile and shrugged, opening his palms wide and looking as harmless as he could.

"Sorry about that," he said, "but I think you were warned about me?"

For the first time, an emotion crossed Kanaria's face- a flicker of open disbelief. "**YOU'RE** the one who's trying to reach the house with all the guards alerted?"

"Thanks for the reaction," Ryozha commented drily, "but I'm really not here for you to call me crazy." He dug into his pockets, then fished out an envelope. "Here," he said, handing it to Kanaria, "Killua sends his best wishes, and hopes that you're taking care of his skateboard. Gon wanted me to tell you all about what they've been doing and the adventures they've had, but it would have taken too long; so instead I made him record it all and copied it onto disc for you."

He glanced up, a little surprised to find himself still holding the envelope. Kanaria's veneer of detachment had vanished completely, and her eyes had teared up. "They... they remembered me?"

Ryozha leaned back and rubbed the back of his neck. "Gyeesh..." he muttered, "this job must really suck, huh?" A little louder, he said "Gon spoke of you quite fondly, and even Killua seemed... pleased to have you called to mind, I guess." Kanaria's face crumpled, and she started to cry, then made a visible effort to pull herself together, scrubbing at her eyes and taking the envelope that Ryozha was still proffering.

"Thank you," she said, "but..."

Ryozha cut her off by shaking his head. "Tell you what," he said, "I'll talk to you on my way back." With a sort of lazy salute, he vanished in a carefully damped-down sonic boom. -_Well..._- he thought -_that could have gone better, but overall, wasn't too bad. And it did give me an idea... I'm going to take apart their entire security force, just out of spite._-

For the next half-hour or so, the Nen-less outer Zaoldyeck security officers found themselves abruptly hanging from tree branches in their underwear BY their underwear, suddenly swimming in ponds three miles from where they had been standing less than a second before, duct-taped upside down to flagpoles, trees, or just about any other convenient structure, along with just about any other variety of humiliating situation you could think of. Ryozha brushed his hands together. -_I feel a little better now... on to Illumi._- With that thought, he blurred into the trees, blithely ignoring the traps that snapped shut, exploded, or sliced past far behind him.

Seconds later, he arrived in the Zaoldyeck mansion. He shifted one earphone back (the supersped-up beats of Evanescence's "Bring me to Life"... an ironic choice to come up on random play here of all places... could be faintly heard) as he slowed to just under the speed of sound, all senses carefully extended- he didn't doubt that the Zaoldyeck ancestral home was loaded with traps and secret passages. He raced through the dim-lit hallways, searching.

Pausing in a darkened alcove, he took his bearings. Despite the unconventional layout of the place (... probably deliberately organized to confuse intruders.), Ryozha was fairly certain that Illumi's last known location was North and East, and a little above him. He whispered silently through the halls, as fast as he dared. Much of the mansion seemed to be darkened -_Wonder if it's because they're assassins, and prefer shadows, or if they simply don't use these areas_..?-, and more than once he nearly jumped out of his skin when he rounded a corner and ended up in an old torture chamber (thankfully unused at the moment, although all the instruments showed heavy wear), or nearly ran into a party of lethally armed servants, many of whom glowed with powerful Nen auras. Finally, he ghosted into the room where he had last sensed Illumi.

He found the young assassin still standing silently next to the telephone. "You are somewhat above average in skill." Illumi told him.

"You've got quite the way with a compliment, mate." Ryozha responded, then continued (as Flogging Molly's "Devils Dancefloor" danced madly out of the loose headphone) "You said I could have the ring if I reached you. You're here, I'm here... I'd say I reached you."

Illumi studied him with his dark, blank eyes for a few seconds (dragged out into an agonizing half hour by Ryozha's speed awareness), then in a movement that would have been totally invisible had Ryozha not been in full speed-awareness, flicked a trio of his lethal pins at Ryozha. Ryozha, forcing himself to react with apparently disdainful ease, snatched all three from the air in a single motion, wincing inwardly at the sheer power as he sucked their kinetic energy from them. Then, again with apparent contemptuous ease, he rocketed them back the way they came, suppressing a flinch as Illumi avoided them with a flawless absence of effort.

Illumi looked at him for another long second, then nodded sharply, apparently coming to a decision. He reached into his pocket, pulled out the ring and flicked it at Ryozha in one fluid motion. Ryozha's eyes narrowed, and, in a flare of Nen, he caught the ring out of the air, pausing briefly to suck the momentum out of the second trio of pins Illumi had hurled along with the ring. The pins tinkled gently to the floor, and Illumi gave Ryozha another nod, this one allowing some infintesimal fraction of respect, or at least a marginal lessening of contempt. Ryozha gave the ring an apparently cursory glance (in speed awareness, he scrutinized the ring, straining every sense he possessed- all seven of them- studying it for traps, for more than an hour of subjective time), then bowed to Illumi, vanishing in a flicker of half-visible movement, and feeling like Illumi had just mentally promoted him from 'irrelevant insect' to 'slightly interesting insect'.

-_Shoot..._- thought Ryozha as he sped away, -_I've never spent that long tensed to run... I'm still shaky. If Illumi had spent any effort at **all** trying to kill me, I'd be ended._- He paused on the path to give Kanaria a (very, very forced) cheerful grin and a wave, then raced off, too jittery to take the time to speak to her. He left a note in the kitchen, smoking with near-burning hot letters written at impossible speeds, thanking Zai-Bulon for his help. Then he blurred off at horrific velocity to explore the surrounding terrain at superspeed, killing time (and winding down a little) until Gon and Killua arrived. Behind him, the mighty doors of trial crashed with shattering force against the outer walls once again, nearly torn loose by the unfettered Nen-power he was too shaken to control.

Meanwhile, some 300 miles... 450 miles... 600 miles... 475... 380... 300... 500... 430... (well, you get the idea) from where Ryozha was, two young boys were getting off a train. Killua glanced around and sighed. Somehow, all train stations looked the same. Granted, there was a limit to the number of ways you could design buildings for a place whose sole purpose was to move people somewhere else, but you'd think they could come up with a few variations... He glanced over at Gon, who was staring around with the rapt wonder he always reserved for new places.

If he didn't know better (he did, though), he would have thought his best friend was just another empty-headed country bumpkin on an all-too-rare outing. Gon's keen senses and powers of observation had saved him more than once, though, and he was content to allow his friend to look a little silly if that's what it took to get the job done.

Gon's eyes flickered over the panorama in front of him. The trainstation at the base of Kukuru Mountain had changed little since he had been here last more than a year ago. Then again, why would it? He glanced over at Killua, wondering what thoughts drifted behind that emotionless face. Gon was normally very good at reading people, but there were times when Killua, his first, best friend, was completely closed to him.

He glanced around, hoping to see Ryozha waiting for them... even though he suspected that Ryozha wasn't very good at waiting for anyone... but didn't see him. Well... Ryozha knew their travel schedule, and they had his room number in the hotel where he was staying. It shouldn't be too hard for them to meet up. Gon started to move towards the exit, then blinked. Killua, walking beside him, tensed, his hands flicking in and out of his pockets with practiced ease, coming out with heavy anik-metal yo-yos, his weapons of choice.

He had far too much respect for his friend's senses to take anything they indicated for granted. Gon glanced around, and spotted what had bothered him before- a shimmering streak of scarlet Nen-fire, laced through with lightning bolts of purest gold, appearing and disappearing in the same split second. He grinned, and waved. "Hey Ryozha! Over here!" he yelled. Killua relaxed a little, his yo-yos disappearing into his pockets again.

Ryozha came to a stop in front of his two new friends, still blurring a little at the edges as he shook with power he could barely contain in his current state of mind. He looked at Killua, knowing in his heart of hearts that the other boy would not welcome his pity, but barely able to contain it just the same.

To try and cover it, he flourished the ring, grinning broadly and (mostly) sincerely. "I got it!" he exclaimed.

Killua raised an eyebrow. "You got it back from my brother? Amazing... I never thought Illumi would let go of it so easily."

Ryozha snickered. "Easily? Well... I suppose he DID only try to kill me twice... and not very hard at that. But still..."

Gon looked a little horrified, and Killua half-smirked, wondering what exactly the other boy was hiding with this show of bravado. He didn't think it was fear, oddly enough, although there was definitely residual fear in there. As an assassin, he'd learned the smell of fear very, very young. And he couldn't blame Ryozha for being afraid after having met Illumi- he himself was still terrified of his older brother... Then his entire train of thought was derailed as the ring suddenly roared with power, blasting out a terrific flare of Nen. It flickered and died as abruptly as it appeared, leaving dancing afterimages on the retinas of all three boys.

Killua shook his head, trying to clear it, and noticed that Ryozha was nowhere to be seen. About ten minutes later, Ryozha reappeared at high speed from the North, hopping from the tracks onto the platform and looking a little sheepish. Once he reached them, he suddenly started hopping on one foot, pulling his shoe off and dropping a clam out. "I must have been moving faster than I thought." he mumbled. Killua said nothing, merely noting to himself that the seaside was more than six hundred miles away. He looked at Ryozha a little more closely, and noticed that his Nen was doing the colour-change thing again; it was almost entirely gold now.

Before he could comment on it, Gon, who had picked up the ring and was fiddling with it, said "Ryozha, do you think you could get it to do that again? Something looked..." Gon paused, searching for words, then gave up "kinda weird, I guess." Ryozha, who was still vibrating slightly, gave a blurry shrug, and snatched the ring. The Nen flared again, less dramatically this time, and Gon studied the brief flash carefully. Ryozha and Killua were also looking at it curiously, but couldn't see anything coherent.

Gon stared at the space where the flash had been far longer than Ryozha was comfortable with, but, just as he was about to say something, Gon shrugged. "I... guess... it was nothing." he said slowly, as if he didn't quite believe it himself.

Killua nodded, still eyeing him carefully, and Ryozha, too jittery to care, said "Come on- let's get out of the train station."

Ryozha's nerves were on overdrive. The unfriendly presence he had sensed that night in Bad Genkopf was back, closer than ever. Quite possibly, whoever this enemy was had come on the same flight and train as Gon and Killua, following his pack. He shuddered, going even blurrier at the outlines, and metaphorically grabbed and shook himself.

-_I need to focus,_- he thought, -_otherwise I'm doomed before I start._- With that cheerful thought, he scowled, then reached for his headphones -_I've been trying to adjust between speed levels without needing this all the time, but I don't seem to be having much luck. Unfortunately, right now I can't afford to go cold turkey and just live with it._- Sighing, he slipped the headphones on, and majestic cadences of Tchaikovsky's "Marche Slave" keened down out of the ultrasonic, slowing to a normal listening pace and bringing him gently back to normal speed.

-_When does a tool become a crutch, I wonder..?_- he thought absently. Then, glancing at Gon and Killua, who needed no such aids, his mouth twisted half-sourly, half-ironically. -_Whatever that point is, it looks like I passed it a while ago._- His nerves settled a bit, he glanced around, seemingly casually, but with every sense extended, including his '7th sense' that traced motion, from the dance of atoms to the larger, cruder motions of people, even to the point of the giant motions of planetary orbits, or at least the planet he was on, anyways.

He focussed in, 'watching' the travelers passing through the trainstation. Beside him, Gon and Killua also tensed, Gon in response to Rhyoza, and Killua in response to Gon. Each boy scanned their surroundings through their own unique senses.

Around the station, travelers began casting glances over their shoulders, wondering where the feeling of intense scrutiny was coming from. As they walked, Killua scanned the platforms, killer's senses heightened to the maximum, and in their wake, people shuddered in uncontrollable fear, suddenly fearing for their lives without knowing why.

Gon, searching the area with the senses of both hunter and hunted, predator and prey, passed through, silent as a whisper, as noticeable as the breeze.

Ryozha walked in a silent fire of Nen, determined to ferret out their silent stalker who seemed to track them so easily. Killua had found the tracker in his bag easily, and Gon's keen senses had found a second when Killua had asked him. Ryozha paused for a moment, carefully extending his motion-sense through his pack, and finding nothing that he did not expect.

Stretching his sense a little, down through the ground and up a little, he scanned Killua and Gon in turn. Gon looked at him a little oddly, but otherwise there was nothing to be found. He frowned, extending his senses again. A tall man brushed past him, and he stared at him, trying hard to find something wrong. Then, in a chance meeting of eyes, he glimpsed someone on the far side of the terminal behind the tall man who had bumped him. A subtle feeling of wrongness teased at the back of his awareness, and he stopped the other two.

"Hey guys- just remembered." he said. "I need to pick up some toothpaste."

"What?" complained Killua.

"Well, if you have to..." Gon started, then stopped.

When Killua complained, Ryozha had turned to him, and was flashing words with his Nen- +Something is wrong. I suspect the guy near the edge of the platforms has something to do with it.+ Then he jogged over to the counter, while he carefully and covertly studied the man he had pegged as an anomaly.

As he approached, the man had pulled out a cell phone, dialed, and, casually and unobtrusively, turned towards the open countryside and began talking. It was a perfectly natural motion, but one that raised the red flag a little higher in Ryozha's mind, since the man's face was now hidden. Hidden to him, anyways. A little smile slipped out- working with partners was a new experience, and, with such competent partners, a pleasant one.

Gon had wandered off to look at one of the displays, and was at an angle where the man's face was clearly visible in one of the overhead mirrors. Killua, meanwhile, had stayed with their bags, draped over one of the benches, apparently bored out of his mind, completely relaxed. Rhyoza's small smile threatened to broaden- he was sure that the boredom was unfeigned... but if Killua was relaxed, it was the relaxation of a big cat in the shade. The slightest threat, and the limp kitty-cat would instantaneously become blurred, fanged death. Ryozha's smile faded as he drew closer to the cart selling toiletries that his target had been using as cover, seemingly absorbed in the toothpaste- he actually did need more, but his focus was on the man with the cell phone.

He reached for a tube of toothpaste, grabbing a random one as he scanned the man, far more carefully than he had scanned Gon or Killua. He looked down at the tube to disguise the intense concentration that the task took, and nearly dropped it when his senses found a pair of hidden daggers at the man's belt- daggers that writhed with snaky tendrils of Nen.

He recovered quickly, and purchased the toothpaste, waving to Gon and Killua. The three left the airport terminal, and Ryozha put his head close to theirs. "If we walk, we control his surveillance to a certain extent." Killua said.

Ryozha nodded. "Pretty much what I was thinking. We could probably ditch him, but do we want to?"

Gon chimed in. "I don't think we want to, do we? One guy when we know where he is is better than an unknown number of guys who we don't know where they are..."

Ryozha flashed a smile at Gon. "Pretty much, yeah." he said. -_Oog... unknown number. Now there's a happy thought. Hadn't even occured to me that there might be more than one replacement._-

"But..." continued Gon, "what if... hmmm." he trailed off. Ryozha and Killua looked at him curiously. "What if," he kept going, "we grabbed him and tried to get some information from him? We never really tried to ask those guys who attacked us anything, and Ryozha couldn't find anything out about them when he looked..."

Ryozha turned a bit pink, and growled "Thanks for reminding me, Gon..."

Killua nodded slowly. "That makes sense," he commented, "since the information we'd gain would be more valuable than the simple information of knowing where he is."

Ryozha cocked his head to one side. "That's settled, then." he said. He disappeared, and reappeared a few seconds later, holding their tail's twin long daggers. "Simplest way to deal with these guys," he said, "take their weapons away- they've invested so much of their Nen into them that they're nearly helpless without them."

"That's true as far as it goes, boy." said a new, deeper voice from down the street. "But you didn't take into account..." here their pursuer gestured imperiously "the fact that we might have unusual ways of getting them back." The daggers tore themselves from Ryozha's hand and flew into their owner's grasp.

"You may have taken out those idiot pages," their attacker stated flatly, "but I believe you'll have a harder time with..." he charged, leapt into the air and brought his daggers to bear, "**ME!**", and struck. Gon and Killua moved as a unit, splitting apart and abruptly blazing with Nen. Ryozha hesitated a split second as he watched where they moved, and then glared at the dagger-wielding man. Then his jointed staff was in his aching hands and he was meeting the attack head on.

A crash, and a flare of Nen. Ryozha found himself lying on his back a good twenty metres down the street, clutching his staff with his head spinning. His speed-awareness had slipped at the wrong time, and the dagger-wielder had simply swatted him aside with a casual backhand. If Gon and Killua hadn't been pushing the guy hard, Ryozha probably would have been gutted right there.

He shook it to clear it as Gon and Killua raced in on the attack. He stood to his feet, and slipped his earphones in with a bitter twist of his mouth, his anger at the weakness that _needing_ the music mitigated a bit by surprise at noticing that Killua had somehow disappeared. As he started to move forwards, Killua reappeared above their assailant, his yo-yos crackling with electric fire as they arced downwards in a terrible, unstoppable blur. At the same time, Gon ducked low, bringing his Nen-glowing fist up with his trademark cry of "First comes Rock! Jan... ken... pon... ROCK!"

In Ryozha's hyper-accelerated vision, the dagger-wielder took a split second to assess the situation, and to decide that Killua was the greater threat. His Nen-aura pulsed a little, then fed into the daggers in a terrible rush. A fine edge of crimson fire burst into existence along the edge of the long daggers, fire that burned steadily brighter until it hurt to look at them. Then they were lunging upwards, obviously (at least obvious in the slow-motion world that everyone else seemed to inhabit to Ryozha when he was in speed-awareness) intending to cut the wires on Killua's yo-yos, rendering them useless.

A slow smile spread across Killua's face, and his wrists twitched, altering the course of his weapons slightly, sending loose, looping spirals around his enemy's wrists and the dagger hilts. As they started to tighten, Gon's fist connected with a CRUNCH! of breaking ribs. Then Tennessee Ford's "Sixteen Tons" thudded out of the headphones, and Ryozha launched down the street, hitting the daggerman like a tornado stuffed with bricks.

Somewhere in the useless flurry, he saw Gon slamming the daggerman again and again, and Killua fighting to keep control of the lethal knives, pumping uncounted watts of electricity into their enemy. Finally, the fires on the daggers died, and their foe slumped, barely conscious.

-_Phew,_- Ryozha thought to himself, -_that jerk was tougher than I expected... And I feel more like I was in the way in that fight than a help._- Gon and Killua high-fived one another, laughing, and Gon went to high-five Ryozha, who returned it without thinking, then winced, dropping his staff and clutching his aching hands together. He managed to stop, and ignored Gon and Killua's concerned stares while he looked carefully at his hands. There were no signs of physical damage, and, when he simply ignored the pain and grabbed his staff, there were only two small scratches to show where he'd handled the daggers.

He looked back at his hands, lost in thought. He was jerked out of it when Gon shouted "Hey!" and Killua said "Use your Gyo, Ryozha." Mentally cursing himself, Ryozha shifted into Gyo, and found nothing. Concentrating more carefully, he let his eyes unfocus slightly, watching for movement. Catching a flicker out of the corner of his eyes and pouncing on it, he was virtually dragging it into focus by willpower alone.

Then he growled and lurched forward at impossible speed. In the space of a heartbeat, he was hyper-slapping their semi-conscious enemy awake, jarring the daggers he held loose. The snaky tendrils of evil-looking dark red Nen that were causing the tiny fires in his joints flickered, then died as the dagger-wielder's concentration was broken.

"Watch yourself, Killua- I think I broke his concentration, but he might be trying to burn your hands from the inside as well." Ryozha snapped. "He's obviously a transformation user- he was turning his Nen into fire- but his fine control is incredible!"

"I **know** he's a transformation user," Killua cut him off, "and I used my own transformation abilities to turn his fire into electricity, making it harmless to me... mostly, anyways."

Their attention turned to the daggerman (with Ryozha tossing an irritated look at Killua for being a know-it-all), who was surreptitiously trying to rip his daggers out of Killua's iron grip. However much force he was using to try and pull them to himself, it was obviously less than the 16 tons that Killua could exert, and wasn't working. Gon was holding him down, having grabbed him when Ryozha slapped him awake, and Killua leaned into their tail's face. Grinning.

The daggerman started to glare contemptuously at him, started to turn his nose up... and then he got a good look at Killua's eyes and recoiled, jumping so violently that he nearly broke Gon's grip. "What do you want?!" he demanded shakily.

"Who are you, mister?" Gon asked from behind him. The dagger wielder glanced uneasily at him, keeping one eye on Killua, whose face was still bare inches from his with eyes like black pits, and answered "My name is Alejandro, Squire-who-burns. We track you because you seek knowledge that it is forbidden for outsiders to know."

Killua's brows lowered menacingly, and his hand arched, then stiffened, becoming a terrible blade. Alejandro flinched, but Ryozha waved Killua off. "It's no use, Killua. If these guys are who I think they are, you could break every bone in this guy's body except his jaw and he still wouldn't talk." He raised an eyebrow speculatively. "I'm not sure how conditioned they are to accept bits getting sliced off... but frankly, I'm not sure I want to waste the effort and cleaning bills to find out."

Killua gave their captive a glare that suggested that he wouldn't mind trying anyways, and Gon looked revolted. Ryozha ambled casually off, his hands in his pockets and whistled along with "Mustang Sally" as it blasted through his headphones. "C'mon, Killua, Gon. I think we've learned all we're going to from Squire-who-loses." Alejandro shifted angrily, but Gon held him fast for the moment.

He and Killua glanced at each other, then Killua grinned meanly and drove the daggers to the hilt in the pavement in front of Alejandro. He smiled sweetly. "Have fun getting those out, Squire-who-loses." Then he ran off, with Gon following him, laughing.

As soon as they rounded the corner they had seen Ryozha disappear around, they found him standing there waiting for them. He grabbed them both by the wrist, there was an unpleasant wrenching sensation, and they were somewhere else. Ryozha leaned shakily on a nearby wall, gasping for breath, on the verge of collapsing. Gon looked at him worriedly, and Killua regarded him half-contemptuously, half-awed.

Finally, he straightened, and as he did, Gon asked "Are you all right, Ryozha?"

Ryozha nodded, then winced, massaging his temples slightly. "Blast," he said, "I overdid it- barely had enough kinetic power in my Nen left to pull it off at all. Let's find somewhere to sit down." A quick look around located an open-air cafe, and Gon bought them all tea. Ryozha absently sipped the tea, then made a face.

"Erm... thanks, Gon," he said, "but I don't really like tea... anyways, whatever. I don't think we have much time before someone catches up with us, and I don't want them to think we know anything much. Here's what I know: according to most of the legends about the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate (that's the one I'm hunting right now), about seven hundred years ago, someone managed to gather all the treasures of the Ophirates into one place- a fabulous mound of treasure so large that it's said it took an army of serfs just to load it on the wagons, which formed a train seventy leagues long, three abreast."

"There's probably some exaggeration, of course, but the basics of it is that there was a **LOT** of treasure. Anyways, he assembled it all in an invincible fortress and created what was supposed to be the most powerful fighting force in the known world to defend it- the Knight-Guardians of Aerie Fortress. There are all kinds of crazy legends about them- two of them defeating small armies, fifty of them routing entire kingdoms, that kind of thing. One Hunter historian thought that if they existed, they might have been wild-talent Nen users, or maybe even practicioners of some secret way of using Nen. But anyways, even though the guys chasing us didn't seem as tough as the legends make the Knight-Guardians out to be, there are still some things that they did, like the Nen-powered weapons and special abilities designed to counter other abilities, makes them sound kind of like the Knight-Guardians. If they ARE, then it looks like the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate isn't quite as lost as it's supposed to be."

Ryozha paused, then looked down briefly. "I'm... afraid I haven't told you guys everything up 'til now. I'm guessing that you guys already know that this is a class 'A' difficulty hunt. What might not be so obvious is that the International Money Council is very, very interested in my hunt, and that there are treasury agents from at least seven different countries trying to trail me. Plus at least one private group has hired a hunter to either compete with or follow me. I'm not sure which. Top that all off with these guys who might be the Knight-Guardians..." he raised his eyes, staring Gon and Killua right in the face "and, well, I'm not even sure there's a name for a hunt like this one. We're talking _literally_ world-shaking amounts of money- if this treasure is found, the whole world is gonna feel the shockwaves."

He stopped, trying to read his two companions. Killua was closed, as always, but Gon... Gon was radiating enthusiasm like a small sun. "Wow!" he exclaimed. "A really important hunt!" then he hesitated, his face clouding over. "Uhm... do you still want us to help you, since it's so important?" Ryozha stared at Gon in frank disbelief, and Killua grabbed Gon, giving him a noogie and laughing at him.

Finally, Ryozha stammered "Er... ah... actually, I was going to ask if you were still willing to help me... Ah, I'm guessing that you do, then?" Killua shrugged, and Gon nodded eagerly, leaning forward. Ryozha grinned, his normally cynical half-smile becoming a full, grateful grin as he said "Okay... well, I'll tell you everything, starting with who hired me. Her name is Dr. Karina Schrenk, and she works for the World Money Council. She has a theory that if the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate were properly introduced into the world economy, it could... er, 'stabilize the economic systems of many poor countries' I think is the way she put it..."

Gon looked amazed. "Really? Wow... that _is_ really important." Killua just looked a bit confused- Ryozha wasn't sure that the other boy even really _had_ any real concept of poverty, but he just nodded to Gon and continued to talk, explaining in detail what he had done up to this point, and where he... **they** were going to go next.


	2. Chapter 2

On a rooftop in York Shin City, a solitary man crouched and stared over the brilliant panorama of the night-shrouded city. His big frame was perfectly still, shaggy hair so blonde as to be almost white (or was it white?) fell over a hard, craggy face. Emotionless eyes shifted slightly, and he grunted in acknowledgment of the small, giggling man who had materialized soundlessly (until the giggles, anyways) next to him.

The crazed assassin seemed to delight in trying to surprise, or possibly kill, him. Once he had let the little loon know that he was aware of his presence, the Iron Wolf ignored him. The Iron Wolf... his was a name spoken only in furtive whispers by 'those who knew'. It was said he could find anyone. He was a hunter. Not a **H**unter... no, not a member of that select guild of brilliant madmen. He was too solitary for that- a lone Wolf, who stalked his prey as a test of skill and courage... tracked them tirelessly until he had run them to the ground.

The Iron Wolf moved, shifting his position slightly, continuing to ignore his giggling companion, and acknowledging the slight weariness he felt... weariness that would have been exhaustion, exhaustion to the brink of death, for an ordinary man. He would wait. This 'Speed Hunter'- the boy who was his prey (a boy not much older than my son... a restless inner voice said) had eluded him briefly, here in York Shin. But he would be back. His instincts told him this, and on the hunt (I have no children. I am wed only to the hunt.), they had never failed him.

A movement down on the street caught his attention. He watched as a silent, slender figure strode into view, supreme confidence and perfect caution in a strange blend. Then, abruptly, the young woman vanished from view in a burst of impossible speed. The Iron Wolf tracked her with his eyes; the scarcely visible blur disappeared into a small, cheap-looking hotel. She was nowhere near as fast as the boy, but the Hunter-filly was still fast enough to give him problems.

Which was why his employers had insisted on sending Paedric Shea with him. The deranged little man was a Blacklist Hunter, who apparently shared the beyond-human abilities of his prey, both the immediate and the ultimate. Given her return to the hotel alone, it seemed that her search for the day had been as futile as his. However, she, too, remained convinced that the boy would return here. The other trackers had dispersed, chasing rumours and shadows, searching for a 'Speed Hunter' that most of them had never even heard of before being set on his trail, much less seen.

The boy was almost a complete unknown, even by the standards of the reclusive Hunter community; he had some small success stories to his name- the (re)discovery of a _very_ unique piece of geography, the liberating of a minor city from an apparently supernaturally-powered gang that had been terrorizing it... but nothing that would make him stand out from the rank and file of Hunters in general.

The Iron Wolf shrugged, steel-hard muscles rippling under his skin, and stalked over to the roof access, vanishing from sight. His small companion stared at the hotel a moment longer, and his eyes glowed with Gyo, his giggles stilled. The crazed Shea, his lunacy dropped like the mask it was, scanned the cheap-looking hotel with a studied intensity that would have given even the famed Iron Wolf pause. He had checked the girl's file at the Hunter website, along with the 'Speed Hunter's' markedly thinner one, and had learned enough to be wary of her.

He glanced back at the dark stairwell, half-thinking of hurrying down to try to 'surprise' the Iron Wolf again to maintain his manic persona, half-thinking of the Hunt that he was currently on... the Speed Hunter, high bounties from all the parties interested in his current hunt notwithstanding, was minor prey. But there were no rules saying that a Blacklist Hunter couldn't have more than one target at a time... He smiled coldly, a very different smile than his usual manic rictus, as his gaze turned to the seedy little hotel again.

In the shadows, the Wolf watched his erstwhile partner carefully. He'd long suspected that the manic giggler was merely a facade, and here was one more bit of proof that the man behind the facade was even more dangerous than he appeared.

--

Meanwhile, down in the seedy-looking hotel, the young huntress flopped onto the bed in a surprisingly nicely appointed room. She rolled over onto her back, brushing her long, blonde ponytail out of her face, and smoothing her poofy red dress. She heaved a sigh, wondering whether or not whoever it was had that had been shadowing her for the last two weeks was going to do anything THIS time. She doubted it... she would almost have welcomed the break in the monotony. As far as she could tell, they were following her because they thought she had lost the Speed Hunter's trail.

She had, in fact, but didn't care that much- she had her own leads to follow. She'd been doing this for long enough she didn't feel that much need to tail another Hunter to try and find her prize. She smiled at the thought... -_I seem to be running into a lot of terribly talented boy Hunters lately. First those two, and now this Speed Hunter child... at least, he seems to be rather talented, given how easily he's outrunning everyone. Either that or the child has a decidedly interesting hatsu. Child... heh... I wonder how the hotel owner's nice teenaged son would react if he knew I was almost old enough to be his grandmother?_- she thought, then chuckled. Well, at least he'd probably stop flirting with her.

She had been promised any five named or name-worthy stones from the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate, along with her weight in gems. It was THAT big. She smiled again -_I guess I never WILL stop loving sparkly things..._- She rubbed her sleepy eyes, and started to giggle at the slightly irrational thought of shifting into her true form and walking out, leaving her pursuers wondering where she'd gone. She flicked the light off, and let her special Nen ability "Lovely Masseuse" calm her. Then she smiled in the darkness, relaxed and a little giddy. -_More gems to add to my collection. Soon, the Museum is going to have to rename their gemstone display the 'Biscuit Krueger Wing'... Of course, they're still all mine... all... mi..._- And with that happy thought, Bisuke drifted off to sleep.

--

High above the hotel on the rooftop, hunter and hunted watched the darkened room. Paedric Shea shifted slightly, staring down at the window with burning eyes, his Nen a chaotic jumble of swirling colours. Behind him, the Iron Wolf's eyes widened slightly as the crazed little Hunter simply faded from view. He tested the wind, then bared his teeth slightly in what might have been a grin. The little loon was still there, simply blended into the background. It seemed tonight was a night of revelations. The Iron Wolf stiffened infinitesimally, his instincts warning him it was time to go. He could no longer track Shea accurately, so he casually vanished into the shadows, drifting out of sight with less noise than a night breeze.

--

In a nondescript van on the streets behind Bisuke's hotel, Daniel Smith slumped forwards, letting his forehead bang against the steering wheel. -_Some surveillance team we are..._- he thought bleakly. -_3.7 Trillion Jenis in equipment and training, and the best we can do is stare at the other surveillance teams..._- He paused, and gave a short, muffled bark of laughter. -_Well, at least now I know who watches the watchmen... we watch each other._-

He banged his forehead on the steering wheel again, ignoring the chatter behind him... it was always the same. Then a couple of words caught his attention, and he turned his attention to the techlit dimness of the back of the van.

"... disappeared completely off our scope... nothing on any wavelength..."

"... infrared traces suggest that the Wolf was up there too..."

Daniel swivelled his chair around. "What's happening?" he demanaded, swinging his display panel and keyboard out and hammering a rapid series of commands.

"Sir!" one of the technicians said "It appears the Mafia team is making a move. The giggling one- the Hunter- has vanished off all our scopes. The Wolf appeared to have left earlier, but we've lost him off all sensors as well."

Daniel hesitated for a moment, then slammed his workstation back into it's nook and spun around, throwing the van into gear with the same motion. "Park the drones somewhere safe." he snapped. "We're gone. I haven't forgotten what that maniac did to Patel and Jackson when he found them spying on him."

--

Paedric Shea slipped back into visibility, glaring at the receding taillights as the surveillance van disappeared around the corner on two wheels. His mouth twisted in a bitter frown, and he glanced up at the hotel they had all been watching, briefly considering taking out his anger on the sleeping Huntress, then decided against it. He stalked away down the street, his face an icy mask of rage and disappointment.

--

In a familiar dark basement, the Knight-Guardian enforcer writhed under an all-too-familiar incandescent stare, pinned to his chair by the sheer force of the other man's anger. "**Do-you-know..?**" the Mafia boss rapped out, biting off each word as though it had offended him personally. "Do-you-know-what-those-idiots-you-hired-in-my-name-are-doing?" He noticed the smaller man's hand continually straying down to his half-concealed morningstar, and visibly collected himself.

The small enforcer opened his mouth to speak, but his Mafia counterpart ran straight over whatever he was going to say. "I'll **TELL** you what they're doing. They're **ELIMINATING** the various nation's surveillance teams, whenever they run across them!" He paused for breath, and the other man again started to speak, but once again, the _Capo_ ignored him.

"This wouldn't be a problem, normally, except for the fact that at least two of the nations are aware of who is killing their men, AND who they're working for. At least," he hesitated, returning his baleful glare to the target of his ranting and slamming him back against his chair, "who they THINK they're working for. If they're pushed too far, they have more than enough resources to bring my organization crashing down. And when they do... one way or another, they'll have my secrets."

He leaned in, skewering the enforcer with his gaze at close range. "_**ALL**_ my secrets. I believe you would be wise to go and bring your hounds to heel, enforcer." With that, the Mafia boss turned and stalked towards his door.

The Knight-Guardian got shakily to his feet, and managed to sputter "The Knight-Guardians can destroy any foolish enough to challenge us! Let them send their entire armies to claim the Treasure. They will break like waves on the cliffs!"

The _Capo_ stopped, briefly, but didn't turn. "And when they decide that no amount of treasure is worth this, and drop a nuclear warhead on you... where will your vaunted prowess be then?" he said. Then he walked out the door and was gone.

The enforcer relaxed muscles like corded steel and shuddered. Even if the Boss didn't have information that would tear the veil of secrecy from the Knight-Guardians and their trust, to be delivered in the event of his death, he wasn't sure he could have acted against the Mafia boss, so overpowering was the man's rage. He stared at the empty doorway his counterpart had vanished through for a moment longer, then drew his dagger and vanished behind it.

--

In another part of York Shin City, in a well appointed room in a large hotel, Killua was sitting on one of the beds clutching a double handful of poker chips and wearing a shocked look on his face. Ryozha was storming around the room, yelling "I swear, Killua, if I have to drag you out of that casino one more time..!"

"He did the same thing last time we were here, too." Gon volunteered from one of the other beds.

"HEY!" yelled Killua, jumping on Gon as poker chips sprayed all over the room.

Ryozha watched as the two wrestled and laughed, absently catching and neatly stacking the poker chips in a brief burst of speed. He wanted to join in, but wasn't sure it would go over very well. He stared for a moment longer, shyness and insecurity warring with nascent friendsihp, then sighed, and slumped into the armchair. He grabbed his laptop and popped it open. He hammered rapidly at the keyboard for a few minutes, before finally exclaiming "A-HA!" Killua got off of Gon and wandered over.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I finally managed to figure out where the guy we're looking for is." By this point, Gon had wandered over too. "Ping Lee. My Grandfather always said that he's one of the best there's ever been at imbuing Nen permanently into stuff- he's the one that made my laptop and camera and stuff. If he can't figure out how this ring works," here he paused and fished the ring out of his pocket and flared Nen through it, "then he'll know who can. Best part is, he's still in York Shin City. Unfortunately, York Shin is also where I ditched most of the people who were tailing me. Odds are, at least some of them hung around to wait for me."

"Yeah, you mentioned that before." Killua answered.

"So I had an idea," Gon interrupted. "We have a friend here- a man we met last time we were in York Shin, looking for Greed Island. His name is Zepairu- he's a buyer in the big market, and he sees just about everyone who passes through here."

Ryozha sat up, his interest piqued. "So... what'd he say?"

"Well," said Gon, "he said that the 'Market Rumour' is that a lot of the local Mafia guys are all stirred up. A guy he knows who works for the Mafia as a runner,sometimes, when they're dealing with something too sensitive to trust to electronics... well, he said he got sent to a really weird place on one of his last runs. He walked through a door, there was a flash, and suddenly he was somewhere else- he wasn't in the room he had walked into when he went through the door. He gave the message to the guy who met him there a few minutes later, and then... well, he said he thinks he's lucky he's still alive- the Mafia boss who gave him the message was so angry he almost couldn't talk, and the guy he gave the message to looked really mad too. Then the guy he gave the message to pulled out a big knife... and disappeared behind it. Zepairu told us that he thinks the only reason he got so much info out of the guy is because he was drunk- he was trying to forget coming so close to death." Killua made a small, disdainful noise, and Ryozha glanced at him.

"Not everyone has done what you have, Killua- and while we may live inches from death more often than most, it still affects us." He glanced at Killua's face, and his mouth quirked in a half-smile at the look on it. "Well, most of us. Heh. So... the Mafia is all abuzz, huh? Well... I don't really think that has much to do with us, but it's useful to know. Unless... Killua, where'd that news report you found go? The one about the weird murders?"

Killua looked surprised, but dug around under the bed until he found the newspaper clipping. He tossed it to Ryozha, who snagged it and studied it. "Here we go," he said, "all those guys who got killed- they worked for a bunch of different embassies."

Gon cocked his head to one side, looking puzzled. "So?" he asked.

Killua threw a pillow at him. "They were spies, idiot." he said, laughing.

"And that paper also says the police think the Mafia killed them, right?" Gon wanted to know.

"Yup." said Ryozha. "So... this might have something to do with me... or rather, us... after all."

Killua looked more impressed than he had in a while. "You know, Gon... I'm starting to think you were right about how important... how **big** this hunt is. It's actually kind of cool."

Ryozha blushed a little- Killua's comments came rarely... in fact, it was Gon who talked to each of them mostly, neither boy entirely sure how to deal with the other... then he tossed the paper aside. "We'll figure all that out later- I just got an e-mail from Ping Lee."

About an hour later, Ryozha was fidgeting in an outdoor seat at one of York Shin's many cafes. Ping Lee's e-mail had given the name of a famous night spot in Zaban and the instructions to meet at 'it's closest equivalent' in York Shin, along with the warning that at least three of the surveillance teams were still in York Shin City, hoping to pick Ryozha's trail up again, and that one or more of them had at least half an eye on Lee. Ryozha glanced around. He, Gon and Killua had all disagreed as to what exactly Lee had meant, so they had split up. Killua had taken the instructions literally, and had headed for York Shin's hottest nightspot... and, coincidentally (or not), the location of a large casino.

Ryozha sighed, but decided that Killua was most likely (hopefully?) going to be able to stay focussed on the hunt at hand. Gon had thought that "Mr. Ping" had most likely meant the street address closest to that of the night spot, and was perched on a warehouse rooftop not far from the street corner he thought Ping Lee would show up at. Ryozha had simply superimposed a map of Zaban over a map of York Shin, and parked himself at a cafe near where the night-spot would land if Zaban were abruptly dropped onto the center of York Shin.

If Ping Lee were to show up at any of the three places, whoever was there would immediately call the other two, and Ryozha would approach Lee once he got there. Ryozha shifted position again, absent-mindedly drumming his fingers in time with the jazzy beat of Artie Shaw's "Begin the Beguine". He half-hoped Killua was right- he'd have to put up with his gloating, but the crowds at the "Night Auction" Casino would provide the best cover they could hope for in this meeting.

Some time later... Ryozha wasn't sure how long, but a glance at his player revealed that Glenn Miller, Count Basie and Duke Ellington had all finished their gigs and packed it in for the night... -_This "random play" really isn't very random... or at least, it's sure spitting out a lot of Jazz tonight. Gonna have to remember to ask Lee about this if there's time._- Ryozha thought... Ryozha's cellphone vibrated silently in his pocket. Ryozha yanked it out and snapped it open. "Yeah?" he said. Gon's voice came out of the speaker briefly. "He's here." was all he said, before hanging up.

Ryozha smiled. -_Looks like Gon was right after all._- He stood and tossed some coins onto the table to pay for the sodas he'd been drinking, but before he could leave, his phone vibrated again. This time, it was Killua who said "He's here." before hanging up immediately. Ryozha frowned. -_Something's not right... I'm gonna bail before Ping Lee shows up HERE, too._- With that, Ryozha left the cafe and vanished into the nighttime crowds of York Shin. He drifted with the crowd, pausing briefly to call Gon and Killua, to tell them to pull out.

A short while later, a third faux Ping Lee had turned up. Ryozha watched him carefully from the fringes of the crowd as he glanced around, then spoke briefly into his lapel, where presumably he had a microphone concealed. Ryozha studied him carefully- whoever he was working for, they had the resources to employ both talented character actors and expert professional makeup men. He assumed that the other two "Ping Lees" would be equally proficient actors, since there was no way for them to know in advance where he'd be.

Now that he looked at the man closely, he could see subtle hints of wrongness that told him that it was NOT Ping Lee, although he wasn't sure he would've picked them up if he hadn't been warned by the other two being early. As he watched, the actor slipped a stun-gun into his pocket. Ryozha shuddered. Killua might be able to shrug off crippling shocks like they were nothing, but Ryozha had no illusions that he could handle even one shock from a taser. He thought for a second. Obviously, whoever had sent the doubles had intercepted Ping Lee, or delayed him somehow.

If Lee was only delayed... he wondered if Gon or Killua knew how to do a brush pass. Ryozha faded into the crowd and found an internet cafe. He grabbed a shadowy corner booth and hooked his laptop up to the system with a cable- no sense in risking an open Wifi port, after all. He hammered out a brief e-mail in a single stacatto burst- "Sorry, was delayed tracking another lead. Will arrive tomorrow. New meeting place? -R".

Then he invisibly attached a tiny worm to it whose only function was to follow the e-mail to it's destination and report back if it was intercepted or not. -_Hopefully the hacker I bought this from was as good as he claimed... I certainly paid enough for the stupid thing. But he said that it should withstand any attempts at detection._- A few seconds later, the worm reported back- the e-mail had gone through without incident. Ryozha sat back, idly scanning through the web for any hints at the surveillance teams watching him- there were certainly enough 'live satellite imagery' sites kicking around that he should be able to find some trace of them. When the fifteen minutes he had hired the 'net kiosk for were up, he snapped his laptop shut, paid and left.

When he got back to the hotel, Gon and Killua hadn't returned, so he called Gon, bouncing his call through Whale Island, just for fun. Through the crackling, scratchy, but surprisingly clear phone, he learned that Killua had tailed his "Ping Lee" to a nondescript van, where he'd lost him. Gon hadn't even had to follow his- the same van, or one very much like it, had picked up Gon's "Ping Lee". He and Killua were on their way back to the hotel- they had just stopped to leave a note for Zepairu to meet them as soon as he could. After Killua and Gon got back to the Hotel, they settled in for some serious brainstorming.

"Okay," started Ryozha, "I can't figure out what's going on very well, but here's my best guesses. I think one of the countries that's having me followed kidnapped Ping Lee- the Hunter they hired to follow me wouldn't have to kidnap him, he'd just use the Hunter Website to get any info he needed about Ping Lee. Also, he'd know that Ping Lee's specialty is imbuing objects with Nen, so he'd have no reason to assume that I'd come back to visit him so soon. That, and he probably wouldn't have the resources to keep him watched- he'd be following his own leads, not tailing me, most likely. So, probably not the Hunter who's competing with me. I don't think it was the Mafia, either- if what the newspaper and Zepairu said DO have some bearing on each other, then the Mafia here in York Shin might be mixed up in this somehow, but I don't think they have the resources to make three, or maybe even more, Ping Lee duplicates. Also... I don't think a stun-gun is a Mafia-style weapon... they seem more likely to just stick a gun in your ribs and tell you to come quietly."

"That sounds right." Killua agreed. " So you think it's one of the government shadow-teams that kidnapped Ping Lee?"

Ryozha nodded, and Gon said "I don't think a Hunter would grab Mr. Ping either- it doesn't feel right." Ryozha and Killua both looked at him expectantly. "Well..." Gon continued "if anyone grabbed Mr. Ping, that means that they knew you were back in York Shin City, right?" Ryozha nodded again. "So that means that they know you're back in town, either from your e-mail to Mr. Ping, or else because someone saw you. Most Hunters wouldn't bother grabbing someone to force you to come to them- they're more likely to track you down and grab YOU, since they'll probably underestimate you. A lot of the time grown-ups look and go 'Oh, it's just a kid', even when they **know** you're doing something huge, like the hunt we're on now."

"Yeah, that sounds even more right, actually, Gon. So, it's almost definitely one of the government shadow-teams that took Lee. He said that there were at least three of them still around in his e-mail- that's out of seven that I know of- and the murders were of men from three different embassies. That means that there's one shadow-team out somewhere else hunting for me. I don't think anyone's realized yet that you and Killua are working with me, Gon, except maybe the Knight-Guardian wannabes, so we still have that advantage. Since that's the case, I think it should just be me that goes in to get Lee out once we find him."

Gon moved to protest, and Rhyoza waved him down. "I know you want to help, and that you're my partners now, but I don't think those goons can stop me if I'm ready for them. It would be bad tactics to waste a major potential advantage for a small bit of extra safety."

Killua rolled over on the bed and put his hand on Gon's shoulder. "I don't like it either, Gon, but I think he's right." Gon subsided, grumbling.

A while later, Ryozha was blurring down the darkening street towards Ping Lee's place. His reply e-mail had included a coded 'trouble alert', for which Ryozha was thankful- it confirmed his suspicions that Lee was in fact being held hostage. Gon and Killua had gone ahead to position themselves "in case of trouble". Once he reached the Lee's building, he slowed to a stop in the shadow of a nearby building.

He shifted to Gyo briefly, not really expecting to see anything other than Lee's usual perma-Nen signs. Seeing nothing to indicate danger from that front, he hesitated. He wasn't sure what resources this shadow-team had, although the fact that they'd taken Lee suggested that they weren't very well equipped, at least in terms of surveillance gear. Ryozha shifted to In, and did a rapid run by of all the buildings with a clear line-of-sight to Ping Lee's warehouse. He spotted five men with binoculars, and three with Sniper Rifles. Gon and Killua were virtually invisible until Gon sent up a little Nen-flare, and Killua did likewise a second later when none of the watchers reacted. Ryozha let a half-smile creep across his face, and did another superspeed run-by, this time leaving the word THANKS in a shimmering trail of Nen-fire. With that, he was ready.

Taking a deep breath, he checked his aura briefly as he blurred virtually invisibly towards Ping Lee's warehouse. It was a satisfying gold-shot crimson, so he tightened his focus, blazing towards Lee's place of business in a comet of red fire and golden lightning, invisible to all save the keenest Nen-enhanced senses. He reviewed his options in the surreal slowness of his speed-awareness. -_Anything I do will alert these guys, and probably the other surveillance teams, to the fact that I'm in __York__ Shin again. My best bet is to get the info I need from Lee, then bail. Should've told Gon and Killua to wait for me at the airport... oh well. Guess what I need to do is disable everyone inside, get the info from Ping Lee, and get out before the others know what happened._-

Ryozha ran **_hard_**, vectored straight up the wall, cleared the roof, and soared high above York Shin. Then, abruptly, he sucked up his own momentum and slammed it out the other way, ricocheted off the sky and screamed down at the roof at thousands of miles per hour. He nailed the skylight squarely, and hurled kinetic energy into it just before he hit. It shattered like a bomb blast. He also briefly stopped absorbing the kinetic energy of the friction heat and sonic booms he generated, creating a spectacular burst of noise and flame.

Flipping himself upright and once again swallowing his own momentum, storing it in his Nen, he was amused to see that those inside hadn't even hit the ground from the dive they had performed to get clear of the 'explosion'- the same glance told him that the shockwave from the sonic boom he had let slip had just started to pick them up, to send them tumbling. He considered his options briefly, then grabbed one of the rolls of duct tape he always made a point of carrying and solidly bound the half dozen diving, tumbling men (who had moved a good inch or two in the time he wondered what to do with them -_Must've really scared them to get them moving that fast even without the help of the shockwave..._- he thought, mouth quirking in a half-smile), then gagged them all as an afterthought.

Then he slowed out of speed awareness and ambled over to where Ping Lee sat, tied to a chair with an amused expression on his face. "Y'always were a showoff, kid." Lee greeted him. "I'm assuming you've already noticed the watchers and the snipers?"

"Five and three, right?" Ryozha answered.

"Good kid. So, whaddya need? I'm assuming it has something to do with why these goombas're after you?"

"Got it in one, Lee. Tracking down some major-league treasure, and this..." Ryozha produced the ring, "has something to do with it." Lee casually snapped the ropes with a burst of Nen and grabbed the ring, heading for his workbench.

"Hang on. Oh- those others'll be here in a sec- take care of them, willya?" Ryozha nodded and headed for the door.

Once there, he paused for a second. He was well within Lee's building, and could already hear the pounding of feet coming up the street outside. He called Killua, and confirmed briefly that the three snipers had remained outside. He grinned, stretched, and zipped back into Lee's workroom to drop off his pack. Then, he unlimbered his jointed staff and waited; he stretched a cocky grin over his face in a matter guaranteed to infuriate the first man through the door.

A couple of minutes later, the door was kicked open, and a burly man in a dark suit and darker glasses dove through, his pistol coming up almost into the ready position... before Ryozha cracked him over the head with his staff at the same time Ping Lee yelled "Hey! Keep the damage t'the fixtures t'a minimum, puh-LEAZE!" The big man staggered woozily to his feet as two of his companions followed, while the two that remained covered them from the doorway.

Ryozha stole the first man's gun and threw it into the face of one of the two who had stayed outside, knocking him off his feet, while his other hand brought his staff around like a whip, knocking the gun out of his partner's suddenly-numbed hand. Then he whipped his jointed staff back around, bringing it to the ready position and dropping into a challenging, in-your-face crouch.

The big man who had entered first gathered his wits and made a couple of abrupt, peremptory hand motions. His men spread out, the two who were still armed hanging back, and the other three surrounding Ryozha. Ryozha paused just long enough to wonder why the lead agent was wearing sunglasses when it was dark out, then idly wondered if he had a full tank of gas and half a pack of cigarettes... he slid his headphones on, and smirked with some satisfaction as the "Peter Gunn Theme" blasted out of them at 10x normal speed.

He did a fast, showy sideways flip to dodge incoming fire from the shooters, then leapt at them, dodging the three surrounding him and disarming both gunmen with a fast staff-sweep whose follow-through knocked the guns skittering into the shadows of the hallway. Doing a midair flip, he let his momentum carry him into the wall, which he then sprang off of, kicking one agent squarely in the face and battering two others about the head and neck with the two ends of his jointed staff. The agent he had kicked in the face slammed headfirst into the far wall and slumped down (accompanied by the shout of "OY! The fix-TURES, if ya don't mind!" from the workroom), while one of those he had been belabouring didn't manage to block a strike at a vital point and collapsed.

The remaining three had managed to turn that point, and two were leaping at him, trying to pin him, while the last agent- the big leader- was bringing his hands down in a hammerstrike that would be crippling if it landed. Ryozha dropped onto his back, hooking a toe under one of those lunging at him and yanking him slightly off-course, wincing slightly at the sound of fingers and collarbones breaking as the hammerhand strike that had been aimed at him smashed into the big man's luckless subordinate instead. Rapidly shifting position without getting up, he boosted the last agent who had been diving at him, so that he sailed right overhead and also slammed headfirst into the wall ("That's goin' ont'yer bill, y'know!").

He then flipped onto his feet and did a quick spot-check- the big team leader was quickly wrapping his broken (-_Well... maybe just sprained, from the size of him... yeesh._- Ryozha thought) hand with a handkerchief. His subordinate was writhing slightly, but didn't seem able to get up. Ryozha mostly ignored him, dropping into a 'ready' crouch and motioning the big agent towards him.

The big man pocketed his sunglasses and pulled out his earplug (-_Perfect!_- thought Ryozha, and hit the autodial button on his phone in his back pocket to briefly buzz Gon and Killua so they would take out the snipers unseen), then dropped into a fighting crouch as well. Ryozha watched his form carefully- there had been no Nen-activity from any of his opponents in this fight yet, but there was no harm in being careful- then decided not to waste any more time. He did a couple of backflips down the hall, then raced forward (quickly, but not with his usual superhuman speed), flipping sideways in a dazzling spring that pinballed him off both walls, the ceiling, and then one of the walls again to end up behind the big man, spiking a devastating nerve-strike at the base of his skull.

A split second before he connected, Ping Lee stepped out of his workshop behind the big man and swatted him aside, slamming him into the wall with stunning force. He flipped the ring to Ryozha, who had tumbled to a halt, and informed him "It's a map of some kind, I can tell you that much, and it's a-flipping-mazingly old- at least six hundred years- but how it was made, or even how to read it exactly, I can't tell you, and I don't think there's anyone else alive who can, neither."

Ryozha looked at him, disappointed, but before he could say anything, Lee held up his hand. "I have a coupl'a educated guesses, tho'. First off, it doesn't display properly if you just pump Nen through it. Either it's degraded over time- and frankly I'm amazed that th' thing still works at all- or else y'gotta put the Nen through it a special way. Hmm... since it's still working, I'd actually guess that it's th' latter. I might be able to pull the Nen out of this thing t' study it, but if I made even one mistake, you'd have nothin'. Well... nothing other than a ring with a huge funny-cut diamond in it, anyways."

The sound of sirens and running feet outside interrupted them. "Ah... that'll be the police." Lee commented. "If there's as many people chasing you right now as there seems t'be, y'd better make yerself scarce." Ryozha turned to go, and just as he was about to vanish, Ping Lee held up a hand. "Hold up, kid- something's bugging me. Call me in a day or two- I might have some fresh info." Ryozha threw him a casual salute in thanks, and vanished in a silent blur of speed.

He met up with Gon and Killua on a warehouse rooftop a few blocks from the suddenly active warehouse. "So what did he say?" Gon wanted to know.

"He doesn't know much- he thinks it's probably a map, but he can't tell us much more than that. But he thinks he might have more info in a few days... I think he's trying to remember something."

"If that's all he had to say, what took you so long in there?"

"Well... I used almost no Nen fighting those guys that came in from outside."

"What? Why?" Gon asked. Killua cocked his head to one side, but didn't say anything.

"It's pretty simple- basically, I just don't want them to know what I can really do." Rhyoza told him.

"Oooh..." said Gon. "Kind of... 'never let your enemy know your true capabilities'?"

Ryozha looked at him for a second, surprised, then nodded. "Yup, that sounds almost exactly right. Anyways, lets head back to the hotel, see if we can figure out this ring." As they moved off, he watched Gon out of the corner of his eye. -_I just can't figure this kid out... half the time he acts like he's totally naive, and the other half of the time, he's seeing 'underneath the underneath', his brain working on a whole ton of different levels. Well, at least he's on my side for now. Kinda nice to have even someone who's just **almost** a friend at my back._-

Back in their hotel room, Ryozha flopped down in the armchair again. He dug the ring out of his pocket and, almost absently, started flashing Nen through it, varying the duration, varying the intensity, trying stacatto pulses, basically doing the Nen-equivalent of idly doodling. Gon and Killua arrived a couple of minutes later and locked the door behind them. Killua perched on the edge of his bed, and Gon sat cross-legged on the floor, watching Ryozha with his head cocked to one side.

After a minute or two, Ryozha sat up, flipped the ring to Gon and said "Here, Gon- your turn."

As Ryozha leaned back, Killua bent forward and said "After your little light show for those guys, there's no more point in secrecy- we need to move fast from here on."

Ryozha cocked his head and glanced at Killua. "I agree." he replied, "The question is, what should our next move be? Those spies- based on what I saw and what Ping Lee told me, I think they're from Bederusse- know I'm here now, and they've probably decided that I had help... or else that I'm faster than their intel reported. I hope it's not that I'm faster- I went to a lot of trouble to make them think I'm slower than I really am." He made a face.

"Also, once that particular batch of spies makes their report, it's very likely that however many surveillance teams are still in York Shin will also know that I'm here. It's amazing how few secrets there actually ARE in the 'secret world' of Black Ops and spying."

"Do you really think they'll be that much of a problem?" Gon asked as he looked up from the ring briefly.

"Well... no, not really." Ryozha answered. "We'll have to be careful of them, of course- Nen doesn't make us bulleproof." He paused, and glanced at Gon. "Well... it doesn't make ME bulletproof, anyways... I'm not so sure about you, Gon."

He winked at Gon, who stuck his tongue out at him and went back to the ring. "The other Hunter shouldn't be a problem, since they're not a Hunter of the Black List... I just wish I had some kind of 'in' with the Mafia. They're the ones that worry me the most. One of their high-level members is in on this, and we have no way of knowing what they're up to." He half shrugged again. "I guess we're just going to have to 'hurry up and wait' to find out what Ping Lee comes up with- I don't have any more contacts here in York Shin who could help us. Unless..." he flipped off the chair to stand looking at Gon and Killua. "Do you guys know anyone here in York Shin who might be able to help us out?"

A while later, Gon had passed the ring over to Killua, who was busily producing blobby, amorphous masses of Nen from it. He wandered over to where Ryozha was fitfully poking at his laptop, producing the usual stroboscopic blur. "Why do you want somebody else to help us here in York Shin, Ryozha? Zepairu has already given us very good information, and he'll probably get more to us if he finds anything more out. And your friend Mr. Ping has already helped us too." he said.

Ryozha glanced away from the computer, and said irritably "Yes, but neither of them can help us any with the Mafia connection."

"Oh!" exclaimed Gon. "Why didn't you say you needed somebody inside the Mafia?"

"I did." grouched Ryozha.

"Sorry..." Gon told him. "I guess I was concentrating really hard on the ring when you said that. But Killua and I know someone who is with the Mafia- our friend Kurapica works as a bodyguard for one of the Mafia guys. He took the Hunter exam with me and Killua, but right now he's chasing the Genei Ryodan."

"He's chasing the Shadow Brigade, and he's still alive? He must be **strong**." Ryozha commented.

"He is!" Gon told him. Hang on... I think I still have his home code around here somewhere..." He pulled out his phone and started prodding it.

Thousands of miles away, Kurapica pulled out his phone and studied it. Recognizing Gon's code, he let a small smile slip through his normal impassive mask and answered. "Hello, Gon."

"Hi Kurapica!" Gon said. "Uhm... is it all right if I ask you a question about the Mafia?"

Kurapica blinked, then replied "Ask your question- if I can, I will answer it."

"Thanks, Kurapica! The question is: do you know anything about Mafia activities in York Shin..." There was a burst of frantic whispering from Gon's end of the phone, then Gon continued "... in York Shin or elsewhere... concerning Ryozha Tenryu, the Speed Hunter? He's searching for a major ancient treasure trove that somehow has modern Mafia ties."

Kurapica was silent for a moment, then said "The Mafia has seen a great deal of upheaval recently- the death of the Ten Godfathers and the theft of the entire Underground Auction has caused the fall of a lot of organizations, and new ones have replaced them. So it's difficult to say who's doing what at the moment- no one trusts anyone else as the various organizations fight for position. Even so, there is STILL only **one** organization, and one man, who is the unquestioned master of ancient treasures amongst the Mafiosi- Boss Hinatta Myoji of the YorkShin Aerie Organization. I cannot tell you any more, except for one thing: be very, very careful if you have any dealings with Boss Myoji. He's dangerous- there are rumours that he's a Nen-user of some kind, but even if he isn't, he's very powerful."

Gon listened soberly, then said "All right, Kurapica- thank you very much!" He was about to say more, but he caught the look in Killua's eye, hesitated, and glanced at Ryozha.

Ryozha stiffened slightly, then said "I'm going to go out for a while- take it easy, guys. And if you have to go somewhere, hit the F1 key on my computer and leave me a message in the box that opens up."

As he disappeared out the door, he caught a fragment of Gon's end of the conversation "So, how is your search for the Genei Ryodan going, Kurapica? Have you been able to find the eyes of your clan?..." The closing door cut off the rest of the conversation.

A while later (a glance at the clock on his phone revealed it to be about 20 minutes), Ryozha's cel rang. He opened it and gave a half-shrug when he didn't recognize the number. He answered anyways, and was startled when Killua's voice came over the line.

"Hey." Killua said, without preamble. "Gon thinks I was being unkind to you, or at least rude... and, well... I guess..." Killua trailed off for a moment, then continued "I guess he was kind of right. Come on back to the room- we need to talk." Ryozha mumbled something, and closed his phone, still a little shocked. -_Apparently there's more to Killua... and Gon, for that matter... than I thought.-_ He absently threw the phone into his pocket, then half-shrugged. -_Well, no sense standing around here mumbling to myself- time to hit the hotel again._- he thought, and disappeared in a sudden burst of speed, racing back to rendezvous with his partners.

Back at the hotel, Gon and Killua were listlessly poking at Ryozha's laptop, half-heartedly playing one of his computer games. Ryozha burst in like a silent whirlwind, as usual, this time chucking a small pile of chocolate bars to Killua. Killua jerked back in surprise, which allowed the candy to scatter everywhere before he registered what they were, then his eyes lit up.

He snapped them up, saying "Uh... wow, thanks! Why..?" Ryozha half-shrugged. "It seemed like a good peace offering. I passed a specialty shop that sells imported chocolate, and I know how much you like it, so I got about 20 pounds of it."

Killua glanced down at the mound of candy in front of him, and hesitated. "This... doesn't look like 20 pounds of chocolate..."

Ryozha winked. "You're not the only one who likes imported chocolate."

He glanced over at Gon. "I'm sorry, Gon... I really don't know what you like, so I wasn't sure what to get you. And I have to apologize... I was being kind of nosey when you were talking to your friend."

Gon waved him off, saying "It was nothing..." just as Killua said "Well... I'm sorry too. I should have just asked, instead of..." They both stopped, and Ryozha started to laugh at the looks on their faces.

"Anyways," Gon said, "we think that we need to practice together some."

"Right," continued Killua, "both fights we've been in, you haven't really known what we could do, and we haven't known what you could do, and that's caused problems."

"Uhm... wow." Ryozha managed to say. "I like that idea... a lot. What do you want to do first?" Gon grabbed a water glass while Killua rolled his eyes. He filled it from the tap in the bathroom and set it on one of the bedside tables after grabbing a leaf from the tree outside the window.

"The water test?" asked Ryozha. He half-shrugged. "Okay, I guess, even though I'm pretty sure we know what each other's Nen-type is." Gon put his hands on either side of the glass and focussed. A second later all three were spluttering as water fountained out from the glass, drenching half the room.

They stared at the glass, then at Gon, who was looking stunned. "Wow," he finally said, "I guess it's been a while since we did this last. Wonder what'll happen when you try it, Killua?" Killua shrugged, brushing water out of his hair and looking interested for the first time. He put his hands in position and glowed gently with Nen. A few seconds later, he stopped, and stuck a finger into the glass. It skittered off the surface of the 'water', which had become a solid, crystalized lump. He scraped a bit off and tasted it, while the other two did the same.

Ryozha screwed up his face at the taste, slurring "Wheeee-oooow, SWEET!" He glanced at Killua, who was grinning from ear to ear. -_He does like being strong, doesn't he..._- Ryozha thought idly to himself. In the meantime, Gon had re-filled the glass and peeled the leaf down from where it was stuck soggily to the ceiling.

Ryozha hesitated. "Y'know, I don't think I've ever done this test- I've heard of it, I think it's Shinjen Dojo that does this water test- but my Grandfather's school used a different method. So I'm not sure what's going to happen... if I remember right, the leaf on top of the water moves for Manipulation, right?"

Gon nodded, and Ryozha hesitantly put his hands around the glass. The leaf quivered for a second, and Ryozha breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. "That's iiii..." he started to say, as the leaf shot off at a sharp angle, taking a chip out of the glass with a sharp 'CHINK!' noise and cutting his ear as it went by. All three boys turned to stare at the leaf where it stuck, quivering, in the far wall.

After a brief, frozen moment, Ryozha raised an eyebrow and looked at the other two. "I take it you've never seen that happen before either?" He looked around. "Maybe we should clean this up before we try anything else. If we're going to spar or anything, having all this water on the floor could be dangerous." Gon and Killua nodded mutely, their eyes occasionally straying back to the leaf where it was embedded in the wall.

As they cleaned, Gon started to enthuse about Ryozha's strength, but Ryozha stopped him. "I don't think that test is very good for showing what I can do, Gon, just because of the way my Nen works. Remember what my special ability is? I control motion of things that are in my Nen. I think a lot of how fast that leaf shot out of there is because of my special ability, not because my Nen is really strong. In fact, I **know** my Nen's not THAT strong."

Gon blinked. "Oh." was all he said.

Killua glanced at them both, and quickly changed the subject. "I'm still curious about what you found at my house, Ryozha." he said.

Ryozha looked at him, surprised. -_Odd... I always got the impression that Killua didn't like to talk about his family. Maybe he really IS starting to trust me more. This is still kind of weird for me... I don't have a lot of friends my age... I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to **act**._- Aloud, he said "Well..." and gave a description of what had happened when he went to Kukuru Mountain.

After he had finished, Gon and Killua were falling about laughing from his description of his short 'speed prank war' on the Zaoldyeck security forces. "One thing I'm still puzzled about, though, Killua..." Ryozha finished off. "Why did your house have so many dungeons and torture chambers? I thought the Zaoldyecks were assassins, not kidnappers."

Killua sat up and gave a little offhanded wave. "Oh," he said, "those were used on me and my brothers, as part of our training. Grandfather said that he used them on my father when he was small, and that his father used them on him. It's kind of a family tradition, to make us strong."

Ryozha stared at him, and so did Gon. "You've never mentioned that before, Killua..." Gon said wonderingly.

"I haven't?" said Killua. "Well, I guess I just didn't think it was important." He shrugged again. "Anyways, we've sat around long enough. Why don't we spar a little?"

Ryozha grinned. "Why don't we head out somewhere where it won't matter if we break stuff? One of the warehouses not far from Ping Lee's place is abandoned and condemned- it won't matter if we trash the whole place."

Gon and Killua looked at him. "Uh... exactly what did you **HEAR** when I said 'spar', Ryozha?" Killua asked him.

Ryozha looked at him blankly for a moment, then half-shrugged. "Why don't we just go over there? You'll see what I mean, I think, once we start. It's not like it's all that far." The other two exchanged glances, shrugged, and followed him out the door.

Some time later, Gon and Killua were standing in the empty warehouse Ryozha had suggested. Ryozha blurred in a second later and said "There's nobody around, so there won't be any reports of the building falling down or weird flashes of light or anything if things get out of hand." He looked at Killua, who was giving him a flat stare, and Gon, who was giving him a look of bewilderment, and sighed.

"Why don't you guys go first? Maybe then I'll see why you think I'm so weird for thinking the building might fall down from our sparring..." Gon and Killua looked at each other, shrugged in unison once more, and squared off. Ryozha watched them as they started off with what were obviously comfortably familiar opening moves, and moved on into blurred (for just about anybody other than Ryozha, anyways) strikes, blocks and counterstrikes, staying more or less in the same position as they started in, shuffling back and forth a bit.

After about five minutes, they broke off and walked over to Ryozha. He gave them a half grin, noting to himself that neither of them was so much as sweating. -_Okay, THAT, at the very least, is impressive- most people I know, even Hunters, would be sweating like pigs after a workout like that._- he thought. Out loud, he said, "Well, at least now I know why you guys thought I was nuts for suggesting the building might fall down. You hardly even MOVE when you're sparring!"

"Huh?" Gon said. "We were moving a whole bunch!"

"Uhm... right." Ryozha said. "But when you finished, both of you were standing in the same spot you started in, or very close to it."

"Oh."

"Anyways, which of you wants to tangle with me first?"

Killua looked at him sidelong. "I'm curious, now. I'll go first, okay Gon?" Gon looked disappointed, but nodded.

Ryozha moved out to the center of the warehouse, with Killua close behind. They started to square off, but Ryozha interrupted, saying "Hey Killua- want to do it with weapons or without at first?"

Killua looked impatient at the delay, but said "Let's do it without to start with- this is just practice, right?"

Ryozha favoured him with a lopsided smirk, shook his head and laughed slightly. "Sure." was all he said, though. They squared off, and danced around each other a bit, watching for an opening.

Killua thought he saw one first, and lunged, a quick feint with his left hand while he brought his right foot up in a fast snap kick. Ryozha started to block it, felt the power of it, and darted backwards to avoid damage to his arm. He closed again, ducked under another swing and smacked Killua solidly with an uppercut, lifting him off his feet. Killua simply flipped in midair, landed and closed again. Ryozha narrowed his eyes, then held up a hand.

"Hang on," he said, "is this just martial arts practice? You're barely even using your Nen, Killua!"

"Uh... well..." Killua stammered.

"Haven't you ever sparred with your Nen abilities? It's actually pretty fun once you get the hang of it. You just have to be careful not to injure your opponent."

Killua looked a bit uncertain, but said "Well, I'm willing to give it a try... let's go." Abruptly, he was in midair, gathering his Nen in a crackling electrical discharge. Ryozha grinned and ran straight at the wall, shooting up it and across the ceiling to come down on Killua, drop-kicking him to the floor. Killua landed on his feet, and Ryozha was on him in a whirlwind of blows. Killua blocked some, took others, and watched carefully for his opening. -_He's being very careful to avoid my hands, where he can see the electricity crackling..._- Killua thought. -_I think I can use that._-

When they broke apart next, Killua watched cautiously as he chased after the flickering blur that was Ryozha. As soon as Ryozha started to turn, he jerked his hands wide, abruptly covering the areas that would normally be left slightly open by his standard guard and opening the areas that were normally covered. Ryozha's kick smacked into his open hand, and he closed his grip, shocking Ryozha with thousands of volts.

Ryozha twitched for a split second, then Killua's hand was forced open by a flare of golden kinetic-Nen. Ryozha went flipping backwards, rolling to a halt to land (apparently) awkwardly on his back with his hair sticking out in all directions, one hand trapped under his back, and a grin on his face. Even the weakened shocks that Killua had been using for sparring were pretty potent.

"You're starting to get the hang of it, Killua- I told you you were stronger than me." Killua grinned back and closed again, but this time Ryozha didn't close with him. When he flipped onto his feet, he instead let off a flash of friction fire he had been building up behind his back. Killua was forced back and blinded briefly. When Killua's vision cleared, Ryozha was nowhere to be seen. Thinking fast, Killua scanned the warehouse- most of the floor he was on was open and clearly visible. The upper level was too small to hide much either... glancing upwards, he ran towards the nearest pillar of the warehouse's metal support frame and sent electricity coursing through it.

He was rewarded a split second later by an "OW!" from the rafters, and Ryozha tumbled out of them. He landed easily on his feet, looking more serious than he had since the play-fight had started. -_Killua's good... very good. he thought. I can't afford to play around as much as I have been, even if it's just sparring._- He accelerated into speed-awareness, rocketing forward and closing the distance between him and Killua in an eyeblink, trailing a wall of friction flame.

He forced it forward with a spurt of kinetic power at the last instant, then leapt into a flat arc, leg extended in a devastating kick. Too late he realized that he hadn't connected with anything where Killua had been, and then Killua's foot crashed into his shoulder in a downward-smashing axe kick that hurled him into the floor with enough force to make a small crater in the concrete. He bounced out of it and tumbled to a stop, gasping and clutching at his shoulder weakly.

Gon rushed over and asked "Are you okay?!", and even Killua looked a little concerned as he rubbed his bruises and singe marks.

Ryozha staggered to his feet with Gon's help, and said "Whew... nice shot, Killua. I'm gonna need a break before we do anything more like that." He sat back against a convenient pillar and rubbed his shoulder, watching Gon and Killua ricochet around the room, trying out 'his' new way of sparring.

A couple of hours later found them back at the hotel, sweaty and happy from a solid workout. Ryozha was sprawled in his customary armchair, Gon on the floor as usual, and Killua had flopped down on his own bed.

"That was fun!" exclaimed Gon. "Yeah," said Ryozha, "y'know, I think that's the first time I did Nen-sparring with kids my own age. It's totally different than when I do it with Grandfather or the other instructors at his school." He paused for a second. "I couldn't believe it when you punched Killua through those two metal pillars, Gon... that was just nuts."

Killua groaned and rubbed his ribs. "Don't remind me." he muttered.

"Can you show me the move you used to do it in slow motion, Gon? I couldn't see it clearly from the angle I was at."

Gon said "Sure!" and hopped up. Under his breath he said "First comes Rock... Jan... ken... pon... Rock!" as he slowly swung his Nen-glowing fist around.

Ryozha stared, slack-jawed, for a moment, before slapping his forehead. "Looks like I need to relearn some of the basics." he muttered to himself.

A little louder, he said "Gon... exactly how do you do that? The Nen-focus around your fist? I think I get it, but I'm not totally sure..."

Gon thought for a second, then said "It's called Kou- you take all your Nen and put it on whatever part of your body you're attacking with. It's very strong, but it leaves you vulnerable- there's a version called Ryu that's not as strong, but you're not as vulnerable either- you basically just use Gyo to move your aura around and concentrate it. It's pretty simple."

Ryozha slumped further into the armchair, groaned a little more, then vaulted up. He focussed for a second, bringing up his Ten, then concentrated harder, achieving a short flare of Nen around his fists. He stopped, breathing heavily, and commented "That's harder than it looks... the part that's bugging me, though, is that... well, for crying out loud, I GREW UP in a Nen school! You'd think that by now someone would have noticed that I wasn't adding Nen to my strikes properly... No wonder my blows have been doing so little."

Killua glanced at his bruises, then looked at him. "So little?" he said, an incredulous look on his face.

Ryozha sighed. "I know you're trying to make me feel better Killua, but honestly, compare my hits to Gon's. They're downright pathetic."

Killua shrugged, and Gon spoke up, saying "Maybe no one noticed because you always move so fast when you fight. I know I could hardly even see YOU, much less your hits, even WITH Gyo."

Ryozha gave him a grateful look, and said "Thanks Gon. I guess that's possible, and at least that explanation makes me feel a little less stupid for missing something so basic for the last six years or so..." he finished, looking so pained that Gon and Killua started to laugh, and, after a second or two, Ryozha joined them.

Dawn found Ryozha on the roof of the hotel with his Nen flickering and strobing all over his body as he reinforced it first in one place, then another.

Gon appeared in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. "You're STILL going, Ryozha? Wow."

Ryozha stopped and turned to Gon. "This is harder than I thought... I kind of wish I had a teacher to show me how to do it properly. Only problem is, I can't afford to leave York Shin until Ping Lee contacts me, and I don't know how long that will be." He sighed. "Otherwise, I'd just hit Grandfather's school- he'd probably be able to sort this out in no time." He stretched, grunting a little. "I'm gonna go for a jog, Gon. If Lee calls before I get back, I'll call you guys and meet you there." And with that, he disappeared in a whirlwind rush, racing straight down the side of the building.

He didn't want to admit it, but his lack of knowledge really was embarassing him- he'd thought he was at least _close_ to as strong as Gon and Killua... and then something like this had to come up. -_I hope this isn't as bad as I thought... I've been feeling for a while now that I was getting close to my limit, and everyone always praised how fast I was, so I thought I was okay. Now... it really looks like I'm not._-

During their fourth night of Nen-sparring (the warehouse had fallen in halfway through the third night), Ryozha's phone finally rang. Ping Lee's impatient voice came over the line. "Hey kid- quit wreckin' up the neighbourhood and get over here. I finally twigged to what I've been tryin' t'remember."

Ryozha just answered "'kay." and snapped his phone shut. Waving the others over, he jogged down the street towards Ping Lee's place... at a more normal pace than usual, so Gon and Killua could keep up.

A short while later, they stood outside Ping Lee's place. Most of the rubble had been cleared away, and Ryozha, indulging his curiousity briefly with a sprint to roof level, found that the skylight had been repaired as well. Returning to ground level, he led Gon and Killua inside, finding Lee's workshop with little trouble.

When they reached the door, Lee called "C'mon in, kid, and bring your friends with you...", and, when they were inside, he commented "So this is what happened t'those snipers the other night. Good work, boys. So... who are ya?"

Before Ryozha could say anything, Gon spoke up. "I'm Gon Freeccs, and this is my friend Killua Zaoldyeck." Ping Lee cocked his head to one side and looked at them.

"Gon Freeccs, huh? I did some work for your daddy once- y'look a lot like him- nice guy, if a little odd. Then again, all the Hunters I've ever seen are a bit crazy. And... Zaoldyeck? Huh. I remember my master telling me about some work he did for a Zeno Zaoldyeck once, years and years ago. Said he was the most dangerous guy he'd ever laid eyes on."

Killua nodded. "Yes," he said, "that sounds like my grandfather, all right."

Lee turned and rummaged under his workbench. He pulled out a battered binder and said "A'right... now that th'pleasantries have been dispensed with, down t'business."

Opening the binder, he flipped through it until he found what he was looking for. Propping it open in front of him, he said "Okay...", then paused.

Gon and Killua were looking at what appeared to be a blank page in puzzlement. Ryozha nudged Killua and murmured "Gyo!". Killua blinked, and when his eyes came open they were gleaming with Nen-light.

Gon quickly followed suit, and they found themselves staring at a three-dimensional image of a man's face. "This was an early project I did... s'why it took me so long to remember it, and also why y'gotta use Gyo t' see it." Lee told them.

"My master wanted me to translate an old photo into a Nen-image. He picked this guy, he said, because he was the greatest living master at infusing objects wit' Nen. Name's Jack Fettham, and last I heard, he was still alive. He specializes in ancient Nen techniques, too, so figuring this ring-thing o' yours out sh'd be no problemo for him. Only problem is, he don't like visitors too much, although he'd prolly take someone I sent out o' respect for my master and between craftsmen an' all that, but like I said, tha's th'problem- where he is, takes at least a month, mebbe two, for a letter to reach him, and just as long f'r one to get back. An' that's assuming he's even home when the letter gets t' him- way I hear it, he goes out on long rambles, sometimes for weeks on end... word is, his whole valley's lit up like fireworks if you use Gyo- place is the Nen version of fairyland. Eh- guess a guy's gotta have somethin' to do for a hobby."

He paused and looked at Ryozha. "'Fore you ask, kid, this one's on me- I've already sent the letter. All I ask in return is that you give him my respects, an' maybe suggest that he come visit me sometime." Ryozha gave him a half-smile and said "Sure... thanks, Lee."

A half hour later found them wandering through one of York Shin's many markets. "So..." Gon said, "what do we do for two or three months? We have to wait for confirmation that Mr. Fettham is still in the same place... and we really don't know where else to go."

Ryozha shrugged. "I dunno... hang on a sec," he said, stopping to look at a few pieces of computer equipment. "Hmm... these would fit my laptop nicely, and make it a lot more powerful. Let me just check what my bank balance is..." he fished out his phone and rang up his bank balance.

"Whoa..." was all he said for a second. "Hmm... Lee's raised his rates a bit, but... wow, I hadn't realized I was this low on cash. Shouldn't have bought those last couple dozen games, I guess." He glanced at Gon and Killua. "You guys know of anywhere around here where we can earn some money without needing to wander too far?"

"Well..." started Killua, but Gon interrupted.

"Wait a minute! I bet Master Wing and Zushi are still at the Celestial Tower- Master Wing could train Ryozha some, and it would be good to see Zushi again."

Killua nodded enthusiastically, and added "And since Ryozha hasn't competed there... er, have you?" when Ryozha shook his head negatively, Killua continued, "Since he hasn't competed, he'll be able to earn a few hundred million while we wait for word from this Fettham guy."

Ryozha looked at them, and said, "Uhm... not to sound ignorant or anything, but what's this "Celestial Tower" you were talking about?"

"Well..." said Gon, "It's right here in York Shin- it's the fight capital of the world..." and he went on to describe the way that the Battle Tower worked.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, at the Celestial Tower, Ryozha was fiddling anxiously with his headphones in one of the arena seats- Zushi Biscuit's next fight was scheduled to begin in ten minutes. A quick phonecall from Gon had revealed that Master Wing and Zushi were, indeed, still in York Shin, at the Celestial Tournament. The same phone call had also netted Gon and Killua- Gon hadn't mentioned Ryozha yet- an invitation to come visit Wing and Zushi at their tower room. This in turn had led to Wing agreeing to meet with Ryozha.

Ryozha really wasn't sure what to expect- all he had to go by was a brief description and Gon's usual enthusiastic praise, which unfortunately told him very little. Gon and Killua were due to arrive a little later- Gon had wanted to buy a gift for his Aunt Mito, and they were scouring the markets. Ryozha squirmed a bit. Wing was already five minutes late, and, while it wasn't hard to guess why he was late -_Probably giving Zushi some last minute tips_- it didn't help his impatience any; his nervousness at meeting someone new... especially a potential teacher... had his control badly weakened, and his speed awareness was sliding in and out so that the crowd-noise (which also made it next to impossible to use his player to help anchor himself) was spiralling up into the ultrasonic one second and dropping into the infrasonic the next.

Just as he thought that Wing was **never** going to come, he sensed someone coming up the aisle. That in itself was a bit surprising- the arena was already packed- but nevertheless, a strong presence was fast approaching. It soon revealed itself to be attached to an unprepossessing young man with dark hair and glasses who appeared to have gotten dressed in the dark.

The sloppily-dressed man checked his ticket, then said "Excuse me, are you Ryozha?"

Ryozha nodded, looking at him sidelong. He did, in fact, fit the description that Killua had given him, but hearing about him and seeing him were two different things. He looked more like a university student who had been cramming for exams and overslept than a Nen Master. "I'm Wing," the man continued, sitting down. "Gon and Killua have told me about you..." Ryozha winced, imagining what exactly Killua had said, and Wing smiled, "but why don't we talk after. Zushi is very excited about this match, and I don't want to miss any of it."

Wing turned his attention towards the ring in the center of the arena, and Ryozha did likewise. He saw a small boy, about ten or eleven with short brown hair and a kungfu jersey enter the ring, and from the opposite side, a tall, dark-skinned, rangy man of uncertain age. He assessed both of them briefly- presumably the boy was Zushi, and a glance at the board informed him that the tall man was named Ganetro.

Zushi moved easily, with a certain amount of little-boy bounce still apparent in his movements, but also the confidence of a seasoned fighter. Ryozha watched him for a couple of seconds, then turned his attention to Ganetro. He was tall- very tall, more than twice Zushi's height, and appeared to be mostly knees and elbows. He walked like a heron- gawky and awkward-looking, disguising the fact that he could strike from anywhere with lethal suddenness. -_Hmmm..._- he thought to himself -_This could be interesting- the difference in size alone is going to make this a bit of an odd matchup. Ganetro's gonna have a rough time hitting Zushi, since he's built so close to the ground, but by the same token, Zushi's gonna have a hard time closing with Ganetro because his reach is so much greater. Of course, unless Ganetro's using a rather sophisticated version of In that makes him look like a non-Nen user, Zushi's the only one down there with Nen, which would tend to give him the advantage... well, we'll see._- He looked at Wing, who seemed to be totally unconcerned. Ryozha shrugged and settled back to watch the match.

A few seconds after the match started, Ryozha found his estimation of Master Wing's teaching skills rising sharply. Zushi's tight guard and sure footwork earned him some respect, and the accuracy with which he predicted Ganetro's moves made him look much faster than the tall man, despite the fact that Ganetro was, in fact, by far the faster of the two. After a few moments of lightning jabs and snap kicks, almost all of which missed, Ganetro grew frustrated- he had scored a point on Zushi when the other had miscalculated a blow, but Zushi had popped back to his feet so fast he nearly didn't earn even that point- and dropped into a low sweep-kick that seemed to cover most of the arena.

Zushi, apparently, had been waiting for this- he jumped over it and kicked Ganetro solidly in the face, then, flipping over the tall man's head, flipped him in turn so that he slammed down on his back and looked for all the world like a daddy long-legs that had fallen off a wall. A couple of fast toe-kicks to the nerves in Ganetro's shoulders ended the match before the referee had even finished calling off the critical hits for the kick and the throw.

Master Wing slipped out of the watching crowd ahead of the rush, and Ryozha followed. They quickly fetched up at the ring exit, where Zushi was just coming out. He was smiling, and the smile grew when Wing said "You did very well Zushi- your training is paying off."

Zushi bowed and said "Osu! Thank you, master..." and then he caught sight of Ryozha. "Oh... hello! I'm Zushi (Osu!)." he said, bowing again.

Ryozha bowed in return, almost involuntarily, and said "Hey- I'm Ryozha.", clamping his mouth shut on the 'Osu!' that wanted to escape. Zushi seemed to be rather infectuous.

A short while later, they were ensconced in Master Wing's flat. Wing came straight to the point. "Killua says that you don't know some of the basics of Nen training." He sighed, and looked at Ryozha. "I know the way Killua talks, and I'm sure that you aren't doing as badly as he made it sound, but the fact that you sought me out makes me think that you DO need some training. However, I'm not convinced that I'm the right person to give you the training. Why did you come to me?"

Ryozha considered him for a second, then said "I have to stay in York Shin for some time, since this is the only place I can get information that I need for my current hunt. I only found out how much of the basics I was missing recently, and need a teacher I can trust. Gon and Killua trust you, and I trust them. It's that simple."

Wing looked at him for a while, then said "Very well. I will consider teaching you. Have you registered in the Celestial Tournament yet?"

Ryozha looked at him, confused. "Erm... no sir. Should I have?"

Wing nodded. "You should have. I need to see you use your Nen before I decide whether or not I can help you."

Ryozha gave a half-shrug and said diffidently "Yes sir."

After a wait in a long line that had Ryozha nearly out of his mind with impatience... he was seriously considering blasting everyone in front of him clear before he was six people in... he found himself registered in the tower. After what seemed like another interminable wait (Gon and Killua had shown up, then gone out again with Zushi after finding out that Ryozha was doing nothing but waiting, in order to celebrate Zushi's moving to the 130th floor) during which he ignored the attendant's description of the wonders of the Battle Tower- he listened to the part that described the way the Tournament worked, then ignored the rest of the spiel- he entered the ring on the first floor.

Two seconds and one hundred and fifty-two Jenis later, he was on his way to the fiftieth floor. As he was sitting in the locker room on the fiftieth, sipping the juice he had spent all his 'winnings' on, Wing came up, looking scruffier than ever. "Ah..." he said, "I'm afraid I didn't learn much from that fight. It was over so fast!"

Ryozha nodded. "That's kind of the way my Nen works, all right... and it seems to be why I've kept the problems so long, despite growing up in the Tenryu School." He made a face. "My Grandpa's a good teacher, but apparently even **his** eyesight has limits in seeing what I'm doing when I'm going full speed. Anyways... my next fight is soon, although I don't think it will last any longer. Maybe you would be able to see more when I spar with Gon and Killua... I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you and Zushi came to watch."

Wing studied him, then smiled very faintly. "All right. Where do you usually spar?" Ryozha flopped out lengthwise on the bench, balancing the juice can on one fingertip.

"I'm not sure," he said, "our last place, a condemned warehouse, fell in three nights ago, and we haven't found another one yet." Wing raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. "May as well use the same spot, since it's not far from where we're staying- what's left of it is on Cherrybloom Boulevard, near the entrance to the industrial section." Wing had an odd expression on his face, but still refrained from saying anything. Ryozha's name came over the loudspeaker, and he raced off to his next fight. Wing watched him go, a speculative look on his face.

Ryozha walked into the ring, and studied his opponent. He was a huge man, built like a wrestler. A glance at the scoreboard revealed him to bear the somewhat unlikely name of "Polk". Polk glared down at Ryozha, and then smirked. "Don't blame me if you get squished, kid- a decisive victory will jump me at least to the eightieth floor." He moved into a wrestler's crouch, one hand resting knuckles down on the floor, awaiting the referee's signal.

Ryozha studied him for a moment, then decided to take this one a little slower. -_Martial arts are going to have to carry the day on this one._- he thought, moving into a closed guard and also waiting for the referee's signal. When it came, he darted forward, jabbing at the giant's midsection with a straight hard right. Polk grunted slightly, surprised, then laughed and grabbed at him. He ducked under the grab and backed off, annoyed. He zipped in again, this time concentrating a significant portion of his Nen in his fist. He smacked the same point on Polk, with a lot less force this time thanks to having to concentrate on his Nen, and was shocked when the blowback nearly took him off his feet. He backed off rapidly and blinked the dust out of his eyes. A rapid scan revealed his opponent embedded in a crater in the wall below the spectator stands.

Wing found him some time later, studying his fist somewhat apprehensively. He raised an eyebrow at the stroboscopic display of Nen as Ryozha tried to hold it in one position. After a moment, he said "I see what you mean by missing out on some of the basics, although that's really closer to intermediate than basic..."

Ryozha looked up. "Does that mean you'll teach me, Master Wing?" Wing sighed. "Yes," he said, "although I wish one of my old teachers were here- she always was better at correcting bad habits. In fact, I think she might know your Grandfather; at least, I _think_ I've heard her mention a Tenryu school before."

Ryozha cocked his head to one side. "Bad habits?" he asked.

Wing nodded. "Yes- a lot of the ways that you manipulate your Nen are... well, basically stopgap measures. They work, more or less, but the way you do it is preventing you from doing other things properly. You might have felt recently that you weren't getting any stronger- that's because you're not; if you don't relearn what you're doing wrong, there's a good chance you'll never be able to grow in your Nen. It's also the main reason you can't focus your Nen anywhere for very long."

Ryozha grimaced. "That would explain a few things..." he muttered.

"Well," said Wing, "we may as well start right now- the other boys won't be here for a while. Why don't you start by showing me your Ren." Ryozha nodded, focussed, and his Ren snapped on like a switch had been thrown. Wing blinked. "Hmm." he said. "Your speed may prove a problem rather than a help for this one... all right, here's what we'll do..."

The next couple of weeks were devoted to intense training, fights in the Battle Tower and carefully probing the city's underworld, trying to find a lead to Boss Myoji and if he had any connection he had to the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate and the Knight-Guardians. Unfortunately, the fact that they were a trio of kids had more downsides than upsides; an upside to it was that they were basically invisible to most of the Mafia... the problem was, they were basically invisible to most of the Mafia, which made it tough to get any information out of them.

Ryozha hadn't lost a match yet- there had been some close calls, thanks to his Nen re-training, but his speed and Nen inevitably carried the day. Oddly, it was his most complex special abilities (absorbing kinetic energy and using Nen to manipulate his own motion to give himself impossible speed) that needed little to no re-training. When he asked Master Wing about it, he just shrugged and said "That's why they're 'special abilities'- no-one else has any like them, and since they're uniquely yours, there's no right or wrong way to do them. You may find ways to make them more effective, but that's about it."

Finally, the evening before Ryozha's fight on the 190th floor, they found a concrete lead on Boss Myoji. One of his lieutenants, Hard Case Frankie, regularly frequented a small club not far from the Battle Tower. Rumour had it that he fixed Battle Tower fights there, paying off fighters more than they would have won to throw the match in order to clean up on side bets. In Ryozha's tower room, Ryozha, Gon and Killua planned their approach.

"So..." started Ryozha, "We're sure this guy works for Boss Myoji and that he'll be at the Arena Club tonight?"

Killua nodded. "We already checked the Hunter website, and Hard Case Frankie is definitely one of Boss Myoji's Lieutenants. I've also checked around the Celestial Tower- there've been a few who got caught throwing major fights, and they almost always claimed it was Hard Case Frankie who put them up to it, although there's never any proof. And everybody says that Frankie is at the Arena Club every Thursday night without fail."

Gon nodded. "That's what I heard too. So how should we do this?"

Ryozha thought for a second. "Well..." he said slowly, "the fact that we have to stay in York Shin for at least six more weeks makes this complicated. We can't afford to get caught, or even be seen, or it might cause problems for Master Wing and Zushi, and maybe Zepairu and Ping Lee as well, if the Mafia got angry at us."

Gon looked suddenly thoughtful, then said "Hey, I've got an idea..."

An hour later found Killua and Ryozha walking up to the Arena Club. The bouncer tried to stop them, saying "No kids allow..lp!" breaking off abruptly as Ryozha lifted him with one hand and threw him aside, bouncing him off one of the corridor walls. They descended into the smoky darkness of the club, zeroing in on Hard Case Frankie's table after briefly questioning the startled bartender.

There was a handful of Mafioso-types around the table, but Frankie kind of stood out- it was easy to see where he got his nickname. Hard Case Frankie looked like he had been carved out of a granite boulder by a stonemason with considerably more enthusiasm than talent, and who, moreover, had gotten confused midway through carving between "human" and "troll". Talk at the table had died down when Killua and Ryozha approached, and Frankie sighted down his fearsome nose at them. He turned to the bartender and gave a series of guttural growls that could probably have been loosely translated as "How'd dese liddle squirts gedin heah?", although there was a possibility that it was considerably more profane than that. The shaken bartender pointed to the semi-conscious bouncer who was (as Ryozha had planned from the start) visible through the open doorway.

Frankie returned his gaze to Killua and Ryozha and let out another series of growls, which probably meant "Whaddaya want..? Wait..." he looked closer at Ryozha, and continued "Yer in th' T'wer, aintcha, kid?" Ryozha eyed him coldly, and nodded.

Killua interrupted, saying, "My... friend... and I find ourselves temporarily embarassed for cash. He has a fight coming up on the 190th tomorrow, and heard that it might be worthwhile talking to you."

Frankie gazed impassively at them for a moment, then, without warning, swung a fist the size of a basketball at Ryozha's head. Ryozha weighed his options in the split second that he had, then sucked the kinetic force straight out of the Frankie's fist when it hit, but not his arm, leaving Frankie feeling like he'd just punched an I-beam, and making it look to the observers around the table like he'd simply taken Hard Case Frankie's punch without so much as a flinch.

There was dead silence around the table as Frankie slowly withdrew his fist, nursing it gently for a few minutes. Finally, he looked up. A distant rumbling that could probably be construed to mean "Not bad, kid. Whaddya gettin' f'r odds?" emanated from him.

Again, it was Killua who spoke. "Ten to three, in his favour. Ever hear of Ryozha Tenryu? This's him- he hasn't had a match that's lasted longer than five seconds."

Frankie looked at him appraisingly. The distant growling came again. "I c'n see why..." Frankie glanced at his cronies and emitted a series of rapid-fire grunts and growls. "Well... whaddya think, gents? H'much c'n we spot th' runt? Three-ten... hrm. Wid what we got in th' kitty, c'd prob'ly afford..." he trailed off. A few moments of intense concentration later, Frankie rumbled "C'n spot ya about five hunnert mil, giver take a coupla hunnert thou."

Ryozha and Killua looked at each other. After a pause, Killua spoke up. "Well... that would cover most of our debts, although it wouldn't leave us much free and clear. Well?" he asked, nudging Ryozha with his elbow.

Ryozha thought for a moment, then said "I'll think about it." and stalked out. The bouncer, who had regained consciousness by this time, growled at him and lunged as he passed by, whereupon Ryozha simply grabbed him and threw him against the other wall. Hard Case Frankie stared speculatively after him, then looked down at Killua.

"Whad're yew still doing here, runt?" he rumbled.

Killua smiled faintly. It was not a smile calculated to be reassuring. "I know my buddy," he said, "he's going to do everything he can to try and wipe out that debt without needing to throw a fight. He's... touchy... about his perfect record. And he's probably going to wait until the last minute to make up his mind."

Frankie subjected Killua to a fishy stare. A slightly strangled rumbling emanated from him, which, with some effort, Killua translated as "So whaddya expect me t'do, kid? Hang around here u'til tommora night?"

Killua gave him a cat's smile and said, "Why don't you leave me some way to get in contact with you?" Hard Case Frankie fished in his pocket and pulled out a collection of plastic shards that might have once been a celphone. He and Killua looked at it, then each other, and Killua smiled inwardly. Apparently Ryozha had been right about being able to smash Frankie's phone just by touching Frankie... or by having Frankie touch HIM.

"Phone's broke..." Frankie rumbled, a little redundantly, in Killua's opinion.

Killua shrugged. "Do you have an address?" Frankie looked at him blankly. "Where are you going to be, come this time tomorrow night?" Killua prompted him.

"Uh... d'boss's place, most like..." Frankie rumbled.

"So," Killua said, "give me the address, and I'll send word to you via courier before betting closes tomorrow."

Frankie considered this for a moment, then gave a massive shrug and said "Shewr. Why not."

One of his men nudged him and whispered urgently "Th' boss ain't gonna like that, Frankie...", only to be abruptly cut off by Frankie casually backhanding him through their booth's divider. Killua raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. "Fer dis kinda money, th' boss won't mind." Frankie growled. He checked something in his pocket, scribbled briefly on a piece of scrap paper and handed it to Killua. Killua nodded in thanks and was turning to go, when Frankie spoke up. "S'nunna my business kid, b't how'd a coupla runts like you get so far inna hole?"

Killua turned back to him and shrugged. "He likes the casinos." was all he said, and then he walked out the door.

A few seconds later, once Hard Case Frankie and his men had returned their attention to their drinks, a shadow detached itself from the rafters and blurred invisibly out the door. Ryozha came to a halt next to Killua, who was casually leaning against a wall waiting for him.

He glared at Killua, sputtering "He... 'likes the casinos'?". Killua shrugged. "Only thing I could think of. Did you get a clear shot of the thing he checked in his pocket?"

Ryozha fished a tiny digital camera out of his pocket and said "Pretty sure I did- took about a dozen shots when he was pulling that thing out of his pocket." He flicked quickly through the photos he had taken, then said "Looks like I got it, but let's get back to the tower and crossload them- we'll be able to see them better on my laptop's screen."

Back at the tower, Gon joined them in Ryozha's room. After Ryozha had run the pictures through an image enhancer, they had a clear list of addresses. He cross-checked them against a digitally archived map of York Shin, finding that at least half of them were in other cities. He narrowed it down rapidly, highlighting the various addresses on the map, with the address on the paper Hard Case Frankie had given Killua highlighted in red.

Killua prodded the screen and said "Okay... tomorrow morning, Ryozha, you take these five addresses, and I'll take the three near the tower. Gon, you still need to stay clear of these spots- for your plan to work, they can't see you before tomorrow night. We'll check them out and see if we can figure out where Boss Myoji keeps his records."

Ryozha and Gon both nodded, then Gon said "Why don't we all get some sleep now? It's pretty late, and we have to be rested and alert tomorrow."

The next morning found Killua ambling casually down the busy streets of York Shin City, apparently doing little more than window-shopping. He reached the first of the addresses on the list and studied it carefully without betraying the slightest flicker of interest in it. It was a small, dilapidated warehouse. He meandered past it several times over the course of a couple of hours, apparently absorbed in the displays in the various shops, but no one went in or came out.

Shrugging his shoulders and picking up a couple of bars of chocolate from one of the stands, he moved on to the next address to repeat the process. The second address turned out to be simply another run down warehouse, but Killua gave it the same careful once-over. When several more hours passed without anybody going in or out, he moved on to the third address.

Meanwhile, Ryozha was hurtling from rooftop to rooftop at top speed, running silent at invisible speeds. He dropped to street level just before reaching the first address and studied it. It was a warehouse much like the ones Killua had been inspecting. He whipped around it several times, then checked for tracks. The mud from the early morning rains was undisturbed in all areas, so he sped off to the next one.

His second address was another warehouse, but this one was the scene of intense activity- several dozen men were manhandling large and obviously heavy crates onto a truck. One, which was apparently a bit rotted, split slightly and spilled a small cascade of rings and jewels. Ryozha watched, one eyebrow raised, but a superfast check revealed there to be a distinct absence of record books in this warehouse... in fact, an absence of much of anything other than several dozen cubic metres of treasure in crates. Ryozha gave a half shrug- the rings he had seen certainly matched the Ophiric rings he had seen in museums from small stashes that had been found. -_So much for any question as to whether or not Boss Myoji has a connection to the Grand Treasure and the Knight-Guardians..._- he thought to himself as he sped off for the third location.

That afternoon found the three boys reunited in Ryozha's room again for a few moments before Ryozha had to go to Master Wing's flat for training. Killua spoke up first. "The first two addresses I found were just warehouses, but the last one was weird... I almost didn't find it, it was just a door in a section of ruined wall. The strange part is, it was made from Nen, or else had it so heavily infused in it that it might as well have been made from Nen."

Ryozha nodded. "Two of the addresses I went to were warehouses too, but two were doors in broken walls or abandoned buildings. The address that Hard Case Frankie gave you was the only place that could really be where the records were- it's Boss Myoji's mansion."

Killua flopped back and muttered "Well, that was a waste of time."

"Not really," Gon said, "if you hadn't done all that, we never would have known if we had the right place or not, especially if the records were hard to find."

Killua shrugged and sat up. "Oh well..." he said, "Anyways, do you guys think the plan is ready?" Ryozha and Gon both nodded. "Don't forget, Gon," he continued, "yours is the most dangerous part- you have to keep all those gangsters busy while Ryozha searches the place." Gon nodded seriously, and then Ryozha groaned.

"Ah, great." he said, "I'm going to be late- seeyaguysbye!" And with that, he vanished in a blur of speed.

After he had gone, Gon and Killua wandered out of the room and out into York Shin. As they walked, Killua suddenly spoke up. "What do you think about this hunt, Gon?"

Gon looked at him oddly. "Huh?" he said, "What do you mean, Killua? It's a great hunt- a chance to be part of the hunt for all this treasure that could help the whole world!"

Killua nodded. "Yeah," he said, "but with this... well, we're going against the Mafia, a bunch of different country's spies, some other Hunters and maybe even a bunch of mythical fighters, all for some guy we only met a month ago. He's never even said if we're getting a share of the treasure and the credit!"

Gon looked at him, slightly shocked. "But... Ryozha needs our help! Besides, I'm sure he's planning on splitting the treasure equally..."

Killua shrugged. "It's not just the treasure- if you want to be a great Hunter, you need to get known; it might even help you find your Dad." he said, "But now that I've thought of it, I'm going to ask him."

Once Ryozha had finished his training for the day, he came back to his room. As expected, he found Gon and Killua waiting there for him. What he DIDN'T expect was the question Killua had for him. He simply stared at Killua in shock, then snapped out of it with a slap to his forehead.

"Don't tell me I forgot..!" he exclaimed.

"Forgot what?" Gon asked him.

Ryozha looked at them both for a second, then said "Didn't it ever occur to you guys to check the Hunter website for info about me?"

Gon and Killua looked at each other, then looked down, embarassed, but not sure why. Ryozha yanked out his laptop, popped it open and tapped out a few commands. After a few seconds, he spun it around so the screen was facing Gon and Killua. "Here, read." was all he said.

Gon and Killua looked at it, and Gon read aloud "Hunter Bios: Ryozha Tenryu. Age 14. Hair Brown, Eyes Blue-Grey, height 5'5"..."

Ryozha interrupted him, saying "Further down, Gon."

Gon read silently for a second until he hit the section titled "Current Registered Hunt: Grand Treasure of the Ophirate. Partners: see Freeccs, Gon and Zaoldyeck, Killua."

Ryozha raised an eyebrow. "You know what that means? You guys are registered as my partners- full, equal shares in the proceeds of, and credit for, the hunt, overseen by the Hunter Council. I couldn't gyp you if I **wanted** to..." he paused, glancing at Killua, then continued, "which I DON'T, just in case there was any doubt still."

Killua shrugged a little, looking as embarassed as he ever did and said "Sorry... but I had to ask."

Ryozha sighed, then gave him a lopsided half-smile. "I guess you did, since I forgot to say anything. Anyways, now that that's out of the way, are we ready for tonight? The schedule's gonna be tight..."

That evening found them synchronizing their watches not far from the bus stop that would take Gon to Boss Myoji's place. Killua would be on the same bus, disguised, to act as backup in case there was any trouble. Ryozha would go ahead on foot.

"Don't forget," Ryozha reminded them, "Two rings is 'we're done, time to break off', and one ring is 'get out now, it's gone bad'. And make sure your phone is set to vibrate... I've had stupider things screw up a plan entirely." Killua glared at him, but checked his phone. Gon did likewise, although without glaring. Ryozha checked his own phone, then said "Showtime." He blurred away just as the bus turned the corner.

At Boss Myoji's mansion, Gon's knock was answered by a large, lumpy man in a dark suit. He looked down at Gon and said "What do you want, little boy?"

Gon bridled slightly at the 'little boy' comment, but controlled himself and merely said "I have a message for Mr. Hard Case Frankie."

The guard looked at him. "Well then, give it here and get lost, kid."

Gon shook his head. "Sorry, sir, but I have to give it to Mr. Hard Case Frankie himself."

The guard shrugged. "Guess you're not gonna get your tip tonight, kid." He started to close the door.

"Hey!" Gon shouted.

The guard opened the door fractionally again. "Look kid, beat it. I have orders."

Gon shrugged. "Yes sir," he said, "but this is a message about tonight's fight. I don't think he'd be very happy if he lost a lot of money because you didn't want to let me in."

The guard looked distinctly unhappy at the thought of an angry Hard Case Frankie, and said, "Listen, kid... I'll... I'll... I'll call this in." He disappeared for a moment, closing the door, then opened it again. "Alright, little boy. Come in to the front hall. Hard Case Frankie will meet you here."

Ryozha whipped past silently and invisibly as the guard stepped aside to let Gon in, grinning slightly as the "Mission: Impossible" theme started playing through his headphones at 1000 times normal speed. -_All right... he thought, According to the info we were able to gather, Boss Myoji doesn't like being photographed by ANYONE, so there are no security cameras in the house. All his security is based around his men, and they're deployed where he is. The rest of his safety he trusts to his walls... and I can see why. I've seen castle gates that were thinner than his front door. It looks like he built the whole place out of case-hardened steel... could probably withstand a direct bomb strike._- Ryozha sped through the house, searching it from attic to cellar in a matter of seconds.

-_Okay,_- he thought, -_I've got about two minutes. The most likely place for his office is where that one guard is. I'm pretty sure he didn't see me the first time, but I'm really gonna have to pour on the speed to get inside undetected._- Ryozha quickly turned thought into action, opening the door, hurling himself through and closing it so fast that he nearly lost control and slammed through the far wall. Inside the office, he scanned quickly. No telltale blinking lights told of activated alarms, so he shrugged and started opening drawers, feeding a trickle of Nen into each so it opened silently and with incredible speed.

He took the documents out of each and photographed them one by one, replacing them as perfectly in position as he could. In less than thirty seconds, he had emptied the desk and one of the two filing cabinets, filling thirteen memory cards with photos. Ten seconds later, he had emptied the other filing cabinet (eight and a half more memory cards) and was searching for the safe he was certain was hidden somewhere in the office. He found it behind a fake wall panel, and was a bit surprised when it turned out to be an old-fashioned combination lock.

He shrugged and set the tumblers spinning with his Nen, popping it open a split second later. Touching the wall, he found the wires that connected the safe to the silent alarm. Reaching through them with his Nen, he prevented the electrons from passing through them until he had pulled everything out of the safe and closed it. Satisfied that the alarm wouldn't go off, he photographed everything in the safe, then jerked it open, replaced everything, and closed it in a single motion. He double checked the alarm, then blitzed out of the room, again as fast as he could. The guard outside the door stretched and yawned, not even blinking when Ryozha went past.

At the door, Gon had been telling Hard Case Frankie and a couple of his men, "I'm sorry, Mr. Frankie. But Ryozha's friend said that he hit a lucky streak at the Casino, and said that you'd know what that meant." Frankie growled something, and Gon said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Frankie... what did you say?" Frankie growled again, and Gon shook his head. He looked pleadingly at Frankie's cohorts.

One of them took pity on him and said "Frankie said that you'd better not be jerking us around, kid."

Gon looked surprised. "What..? I don't understand." he said. Frankie rumbled something else, and again one of his men translated. "Frankie says that there's a lot of money that stands to be won or lost in this deal, and you'd better be sure of what you're telling us." Gon stammered for a second, then felt his phone buzz twice.

He caught himself, and said "Ryozha's friend- the one with light blue hair and cat-eyes- said that Ryozha and he hit a lucky streak in the casino, so they don't need money anymore. He's going to fight like usual." Hard Case Frankie grumbled, but turned to go, waving Gon off.

He jerked a finger at one of his men, and rumbled something that Gon made out as (maybe? he really did have a hard time understanding the giant) "Call th' bookie- tell him to put dat money on th' kid rather than th' mook he's fightin'."

The big lumpy man who was the door guard jerked his thumb at the massive door which was now ajar. "Okay, kid. Y'delivered your message, now would you get out of here?" Gon nodded to him and walked out, feeling the faint breeze pass him that told him that Ryozha had made it out as well.

Once on the bus, the three boys exchanged high fives. "Okay, that went smoother than I ever imagined it could." Ryozha exulted, pulling off the lightweight gloves he had been wearing.

Gon nodded. "I don't think they noticed anything... if they did, they're really really good actors."

Killua just smiled. "And to think..." he said softly, to himself, "it was possible to do it without killing anybody."

At the next stop, Ryozha debussed and bolted for the tower, headed for his next match with just barely enough time to make it. He sped into the tower and hurled himself up the stairs, taking them at nearly two thousand miles an hour, sprinting up one hundred and ninety-three floors in less than a second. He paused just long enough to be recognized by the judge, then took his place on the floor.

His opponent seemed more than a little nonplussed by his abrupt appearance, and slipped out of his patient "I'm going to win this by default" guard for a second. Then he recovered and settled into a still-confident (although not as much) guard. Ryozha watched his opponent for a moment, and realized that his eyes were glowing with Gyo. Ryozha half-grinned, and thought -_Well... I may as well give him something to look at. Besides, I absorbed so much energy this afternoon 'just in case' that I've gotta do SOMETHING with it, or I'm gonna pop..._- And with that thought, he released his Nen, creating a silent storm of gold-shot scarlet Nen that towered above the arena. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a surprising number of people in the crowd flinch back, and his opponent jumped visibly. The judge, apparently oblivious to all this, brought his hand down and said "Begin!"

Ryozha and his opponent circled each other warily. -_I suppose it was inevitable that I would meet up with another Nen-user on my way to the 200th..._- Ryozha thought. -_After all, they have to GET to the 200th floor somehow..._-He blitzed in, hammering his opponent with dozens of punches in an eyeblink, some Nen-boosted, some not. He backed off rapidly, cursing himself and his inability to properly control his aura roundly, if silently. His opponent, who had staggered back a step or two, looked at him curiously as the judge said "Clean hit! One point!"

Ryozha shrugged. -_I've already blown my record of never having a match last longer than five seconds- time to try for ten._- Without pausing, he launched himself at his opponent, this time closing the distance in an eyeblink and transferring several tons of kinetic force into his opponent with a single (somewhat showy) flip kick. He landed it, expecting to see his opponent writhing feebly in a crater in the far wall, but was shocked to find him still standing at the end of two grooves no more than four or five feet long.

The referee shouted "Critical Hit! Two Points!" Ryozha hesitated, moving around his opponent rapidly, although not superhumanly fast, holding back and carefully assessing his opponent. The next time he moved in, he launched a flurry of heavy blows and darted back. -_All right,_- he thought, -_now I know what he's doing. I used Gyo during that attack for a split second, and saw that he had transformed his Nen into a thick shield all around himself. That's why I didn't get through very much, even attacking from a couple of different angles. So... he probably depends on seeing me move. Let's see how he does if I go a little faster..._- And with that thought, he vanished. His opponent staggered and went down on one knee, buckling under a rain of heavy blows from all directions at once.

Ryozha slid to a halt, amazed that his opponent was still more or less upright, as the referee called "Critical Hit and a Down! Three Points!"

-_It's weird,_- Ryozha thought, -_but this guy..._- he glanced at the scoreboard -_uh... Vladimir? Weird... anyways, this guy Vladimir hasn't moved since we started..._- A sudden change in air pressure was the only warning he had, as an invisible hammer of force shattered the flagstone he had been standing on a second before. A second one smashed where he had ended up, and he darted back, shifting to Gyo for a second and pausing nearly long enough to be flattened as he stared at the writhing nest of Nen-hammer-tentacles projecting from his opponent's aura.

Vladimir stood with his arms folded in the middle, laughing slightly as Ryozha raced back and forth, frantically dodging the Nen hammers. After a few seconds of this, he appeared to get bored with the game of whack-a-Hunter and brought about a dozen hammers into play at once, bringing them smashing down over nearly the entire surface of the ring. Ryozha smiled. -_Exactly what I was waiting for._- he thought, and blurred under the strikes, suddenly appearing in his opponent's face with his fist cocked. He landed a triphammer blow in Vladimir's face, enhanced by both kinetic power and Nen, from less than four inches away, summarily ejecting him from the ring and leaving one of the type of craters beneath the spectator stands that were rapidly becoming his trademark.

However, the judge simply called "Critical Down! Three points!", and Ryozha found himself gloomily unsurprised to see his opponent peeling himself out of the crater, apparently not much the worse for the wear. A brief shift to Gyo revealed that his opponent had gone from a writhing tentacle-nest of Nen hammers to one large Nen hammer around each fist. Even as he watched, his opponent gestured, and one of the hammers shot from his hand to powder the stone where he had been standing.

Vladimir smirked seeing the dodge, and brought his hands together, sending both hammers spinning out, sweeping across the arena. Ryozha leapt frantically out of the way... too late. A smashing blow knocked him spinning out of the air to land in a crashing heap outside the ring.

"Critical hit and down!" the judge called, then came over when he saw that Ryozha was having trouble getting up. "Can you continue?" he asked.

Ryozha nodded grimly and dragged himself up. The instant he was back in the ring, Vladimir launched his attack again, hammers scything in towards Ryozha. He'd been expecting it, but a last second twitch caught him off-guard and knocked him sprawling again. The commentator was going crazy at this 'sudden turnaround', 'Ryozha going from dominating to being dominated', blah blah blah blah... Ryozha had a sick feeling that he hadn't been dominating the first part of the match any more than he was now.

Ryozha shook off his reverie in a hurry when he realized that the last blow had landed him inside the ring, gaining his feet and diving blindly so fast, he left the camera crews blinking and checking their equipment. He scrambled to his feet again, hopping back into the arena to face Vladimir, who was advancing on him with a mean grin on his face and his fists glowing with Nen.

-_Apparently he's decided to forego using In for his hammers..._- Ryozha thought. -_Good. I can use that. Means I don't have to keep switching to and from Gyo all the time._- Ryozha hopped briefly from one foot to the other, checking to see if he was injured. He winced as pain shot through his right knee, and dropped to massage and work it briefly. Vladimir smiled wider, bringing his hammers together with a sharp CRASH that even those without Nen could hear. He lunged, and was caught off balance when he found Ryozha was gone. He whirled, bringing his hammers together and starting to form them into his shield, but he was too late. Ryozha brought a crippling axe kick down on him, doing a backflip with the momentum to kick him sprawling. The judge called the final points, and the match was over.

Gon and Killua found him in the locker room later, having his leg and shoulder iced down and wrapped by one of the arena medics. "Are you okay?" Gon asked. "That guy was really strong!"

"A powerful Transformation user, yes." Wing said from behind him.

"Master Wing!" Ryozha exclaimed, surprised. "You almost never come back here after my matches..."

Wing nodded. "I know." he told Ryozha, "But just because you have more confidence than Zushi doesn't mean you never need encouragement."

"Encouragement!?" Ryozha echoed incredulously. "If that Vladimir guy hadn't been playing with me, letting me get nine points before even moving, there's no way I could have beaten him! Honestly, it feels like I'm getting WORSE, not better..."

Wing glared at him. "So..." he said coldly. "You're saying that since you had a hard time beating a powerful, experienced Nen user whose abilities were very nearly a perfect counter for yours, you're not improving."

Ryozha rubbed the back of his neck and looked down embarrassedly, wincing slightly as the movement jarred his injured shoulder. "Well... when you put it that way, Master..."

Wing glanced at the medic. "How is he?" he asked.

"Already told the kid, sir. Nothing broken, but he'd better stay off this leg for a few days, and not do anything strenuous with the shoulder, either." He eased Ryozha's injured arm into a sling, and said "Now keep it in there as much as possible- and TAKE IT EASY, for at least two weeks. You fighters are all alike- think you're invincible. I've seen more careers ruined by you guys refusing to take enough time to heal completely..." He packed up his kit and walked out, pausing to toss one more admonishment to Ryozha to be careful of his injuries over his shoulder.

Back in his room, Ryozha sank back into his pillows with a sigh. "Well," he told Gon, "at least now I'll have some uninterrupted time to go through all these photos. Now I'm REALLY glad we did our little raid on Boss Myoji's place before my fight, rather than waiting for after, when we had more time."

Gon nodded. "I know." he said. "If we hadn't done it then, we wouldn't have been able to do it at all!" He reached under Ryozha's bed and pulled out the small pile of camera memory cards, handing a handful to Ryozha and keeping a larger handful for himself.

Ryozha looked at him curiously. "Did you buy a laptop, Gon?" he asked.

Gon shook his head. "The TV screens in these rooms have a small computer in them- Killua showed me the slots where you can plug things into them last time we were here, and I'm pretty sure that one of them fits these cards."

Ryozha smiled faintly and gave a half-shrug, the smile fading abruptly as a stab of pain told him it was his injured shoulder he had just shrugged. He sighed and turned his attention to his laptop. Killua came in a while later carrying two flat screens and a message from Wing. He snapped the TV off and popped the card out, shaking his head to Gon who had started to complain.

"First off," he said, "Ryozha- Master Wing told me to tell you that you should continue to practice your basic Ten and Ren, but don't do anything more for three days." He turned his attention to Gon. "Your idea was good," he told him, "but these televisions are connected to the Battle Tower's computer network, and even though it's not likely, someone might be able to connect to it and see what we're doing. I bought these..." with that, he tossed one of the screens he was carrying to Gon, "at the market today. They're card readers- all they do is show what's on the card. They have no memory, so even if someone stole them, they couldn't see what was on the cards unless they stole the cards too."

Ryozha nodded, smiling admiringly. "Good thinking, Killua." he said. Gon took one of the readers, and the three of them settled back to study the thousands of photographs, studying in companionable silence.

Wing and Zushi stopped by to check on Ryozha the next morning and found them there, nine hours later, still scanning through photos. Wing gave Ryozha some fruit and a stern warning to rest. After Wing had left, Ryozha shut off his laptop with a sigh. "That's as good a place as any to take a break, I guess."

Gon and Killua glanced wordlessly at each other, then shut down their viewers as well. They grabbed the pieces of scratchpaper they had been using to keep track of which photos were interesting and came over to sit on the edge of Ryozha's bed.

"Well," said Killua, "I've eliminated all the ones that are about stuff outside York Shin for now, like you suggested, Ryozha."

Gon nodded. "I did the same thing." he said. "There's a lot of stuff in here that I don't understand, about taxes, or something." He scratched his head. "There's something weird in these things here, though." He brought up the appropriate picture, and Killua and Ryozha clustered in close around his screen.

"Those look like security logs." said Killua.

Ryozha nodded. "Yeah... and you're right, Gon. He goes out at 10:30 PM on the third day of every month with no explanation, and no escort. For somebody as paranoid as Boss Myoji seems to be, that's downright bizarre."

Killua looked at him. "Maybe not so bizzare..." he said, "It might be BECAUSE he's paranoid that he goes out alone on that occasion. Something so secret that he cannot trust any other with it."

Ryozha shrugged. "Could be." he said. "One other thing that's been bugging me, so that I can actually rest like I'm supposed to... Take a look at these." He turned his laptop back on, swung it awkwardly around with his left hand and pointed.

Gon and Killua looked at it in silence for a moment, then Gon said "Those are the addresses you went to, aren't they?"

Killua nodded, and said "Hmm... and the address that was nothing but a weird Nen-door is listed as the source for some... whatever those numbers mean, going to the warehouses that I checked. I'll bet that the other two 'source' addresses are the other Nen-doors?" He glanced at Ryozha for confirmation, who nodded. Killua said, "Now, if only we knew what was in those warehouses..."

Gon looked at him oddly. "I thought you were here when Ryozha said that he had gone inside one of them!" he said. Killua gave Gon, then Ryozha a strange, somewhat affronted look, then smacked Ryozha on the head for good measure.

"Ow!" said Ryozha, rubbing his head. "Why'd you...?" Killua plopped back down, cross-legged on the floor, and glared at Ryozha for a while. Finally, Ryozha said "WHAT!?"

Killua continued to glare at him, then said "Fine! What... was... in... the... warehouse?"

Ryozha blinked. "Oh, that. It was full of treasure, at least some of which came from one of the Ophirate treasures. I don't think there was anything much else in it."

All three boys were silent for a bit, then Ryozha said "The next delivery is less than a week away, isn't it?"

Gon looked at the photo again and nodded. "It's three days from now." he said. "And the next one is more than five months from now. If we're going to find out what happens at those weird doors, we're going to have to watch them now."

Ryozha slumped back into his pillow. "Well, I guess that leaves me out of this one. We don't really need a plan or anything for this one, do we?"

Killua shrugged. "Just for watching a couple of deserted doors? I don't think there's too much to worry about."

Ryozha sat back up, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Just be careful..." he said, "I've got a bad feeling about this, for some reason."

Later that same day, the Iron Wolf and Shea stood in Boss Myoji's office. The Knight-Guardian Enforcer had been smoothly explained away as one of Boss Myoji's lieutenant's, and they had been told they were now going to report to Boss Myoji himself. Shea was uncharacteristically sullen, having been raked over the coals first by the lithe Enforcer, then by Boss Myoji himself.

He had threatened to go into a manic rage, only to find himself smashed to the floor by the sheer force of the Enforcer's Nen without him even needing to draw his mace. The Iron Wolf simply stood by, as impassive as ever, his nostrils flaring occasionally. Boss Myoji stood at his desk, gazing with distaste at the screen of a laptop one of his men had brought in and hooked up to the Web. On it, a picture of Ryozha glowed faintly in the dimness, taken from the Hunter's Website by Shea's Hunter Card.

"This?" Myoji was raging. "This... CHILD is what threatens all I have built?" He paused, and continued more calmly. "Still, it would explain why the Speed Hunter is able to get about with such anonymity- who would suspect a young boy?" He looked to his henchman who had provided the computer. "I assume that you can duplicate this picture so that we don't have to drag this ridiculous toy everywhere?"

The henchman nodded. "Yes sir. I can have copies of it in the hands of every one of our men in York Shin within the hour."

Boss Myoji grunted affirmatively, and said "See to it."

Just then, Hard Case Frankie hulked in. "S'rry, Boss." he rumbled. "Wuz at th' Pachinko Parlour when y' called. Whaddaya need?"

"Ah, Frankie. So glad you could join us" Boss Myoji said sarcastically. He gestured toward the screen. "Once Sanji has made copies of this picture, give them out to your men and have them check around. I want this boy found!"

Frankie peered at the picture for a moment, then growled "No need, Boss. I know where th' brat is."

Boss Myoji looked at him sharply. "How?" he demanded.

"Hezat th' Tower." Frankie grunted. "Saw part uv h's fight de udder night."

Boss Myoji stood up straight, pinning the suddenly cringing Frankie with his glare. "And WHY, Frankie, did you suddenly decide to go see one of the fights at the tower? Did you have an interest in it, hmm?"

"Uh... yah, Boss..." stuttered Frankie, his voice rising several octaves (although this merely made it basso, rather than basso profundo...), "Th'kid an' his manager 'r sumthin' came t'me th'night before, cuz dey needed some dough." He paused to run his sleeve over his sweating brow, and continued, talking fast now. "Th'kid wuz gettin' ten t' three, in his favour, so I figgered it wuz a decent deal... offered him 500 mill, which his buddy said was pretty near t'enuff, but thad he'd make up his mind later. Next day, dey sent a, uh, a courier t'tell me tha' he'd gotten a streak at da Casino, so thad he didn' need me no more... still made a nice bit o' dough bettin on da kid, tho'."

Boss Myoji advanced, and Frankie cringed back further, apparently trying to dig through the wall with his massive shoulderblades. Without taking his gaze from Frankie, Boss Myoji snapped "Sanji! Send some men around to the casinos and gambling parlours- find out if anyone... anyone at all!.. has cleared a debt in the range of 500 million with them through a lucky streak over the past few days... and check to see if anyone has cleared a debt of 500 million with what they won from elsewhere."

Sanji said "Yes sir." bowed, and left, taking the laptop with him.

Boss Myoji relaxed fractionally, and said in almost conversational tones, "Of course, Frankie, you said he sent a courier. Does that mean you TOLD HIM WHERE I LIVE?"

Frankie was blubbering openly now. "I... ahuh... didn' t'ink y'd mind, Boss! Dere was loads o' dough on th' line, and my phone wuz broke!" he sobbed. "An'... an'... he wuz jus' a brat..." he started to continue, but Boss Myoji cut him off with a wave of his hand.

He eased back the wattage of his glare, and said "What's done is done. Frankie, I want you to take over my home security detail for a while- let's see if you can't undo your idiot blunder. Triple the guard, inside and outside. If that boy comes within a mile of here, I want to know about it."

High above Boss Myoji's house, a drone hovered on silent wings, capturing the data from the unsecured Wifi port that Sanji's laptop was hooked to and sending it in an encrypted tightbeam to another drone, which in turn beamed it down to a nondescript van more than a mile away. In the van, Daniel Smith looked over the shoulder of the techie who was bringing the data in.

"Just a kid, huh?" he said. "That fits what we've heard- according to the comm chatter we intercepted from the Bederusse, and the embassy gossip, their entire strike force was stomped flat by a kid whose description matches this photo. So... we finally have a face and a name for our mysterious quarry. Ryozha Tenryu. Odd... he's so... average looking."

The techie glanced back at him and shrugged. "Average looking or not, sir, if the drones catch sight of him now, the computers will pick up on it and alert us. Even if they don't, I've already passed it along to our photo analysis guys, and it's been passed to our HUMINT types here too. If he's still here in York Shin City, we'll find him." -_Yes,_- Daniel thought, -_but will we be able to keep track of him..?_-

As they left Boss Myoji's fortified mansion, Shea looked slyly at the Wolf. He giggled slightly. "So... what are you hiding, my hirsute friend?" The Iron Wolf looked down at him. He paused for a moment, then shrugged, deciding there was no harm in telling the little pseudo-maniac.

"There was the scent of another in Myoji's study. Someone young, who came in there but once, and recently."

Shea giggled again, smirking at the Wolf. "So... the Iron Wolf keeps secrets from his employer?" The Iron Wolf ignored him, as he ignored the voice raging in a whisper in the back of his mind (I am the greatest tracker the world has ever seen... and I am lost and alone on the clearest of trails...). He walked on, sure and swift. (I am never lost. I hunt the Hunters. I am the Wolf.)

The next couple of days passed slowly for Ryozha. He poked occasionally at the photos, and talked and laughed with Gon, Killua and Zushi when they came to visit him, but he was increasingly restless. Finally, the night came when Boss Myoji's Triad would be working around the strange Nen-doors. Gon and Killua had decided to split up, each watching a different door. They had left two hours before, at Midnight, and there was nothing due to happen at the doors for at least another hour. Ryozha was poking through the photos they hadn't checked yet, wishing he was with the others, watching the third door, when one of the documents he had photographed seemed to leap off the screen and grab him by the throat. He stared wordlessly at it for a long moment, then fumbled for his phone.

Killua leaned casually on the edge of ruined chimney on a rooftop looking down over the doorway that he had chosen, motionless save for the shallow rise and fall of his chest, at one with the shadows. He felt his phone vibrate, but he ignored it, focussed on waiting to the point of being aware of little other than the passage of time.

Back in his room, Ryozha glared at his useless phone, roundly cursing the fact that they had been so overconfident that they hadn't even bothered to set an emergency code.

Gon was crouched silently in the shadows of windowjamb of the ruined building he had staked out, shifting position minutely every once in a while to prevent cramps. Every sense was keenly attuned, and he waited with the patience of a wild animal expecting prey. His phone vibrated, but he ignored it. -_This is an important hunt!_- he thought, -_I can't afford to be distracted._-

In his room, Ryozha dubiously eyed the wheelchair that the Celestial Tower had provided for him. After a moment, he glanced down thoughtfully and activated his Nen. When nearly pure gold presented itself, he sighed and sank back into his pillow to listlessly listen to music. -_It's gonna be a looooooooong night._- he thought.

As the hour from the photo drew near, Killua sensed someone approaching. He crouched down in the shadow of a ruined chimney, invisible from the street. Alerted, he soon heard the soft tread of someone approaching, and quickly spotted a dark-clad man with a high-powered rifle strapped to his back. Another turned up shortly after, and there was a vague feeling of one or two others just beyond the limit of his senses, on the far side of the door he was watching. However, the closer two were what concerned him now. The first started to climb the fire escape of the building next to the one he was perched on, and the second started to ascend to the roof of a building a couple of doors down.

At the same time, in another part of town, Gon was also warned by the sense of an approaching presence. He shifted uneasily, feeling them draw steadily closer. From the sound of it, whoever it was, was searching the building room by room. A faint noise from above changed his mind. Not searching. Patrolling. A flicker of light from out in the hallway made him shift again, his mind racing.

Killua glanced rapidly around, coolly analyzing the situation. -_If those are night scopes on those rifles, these shadows aren't going to be much help..._- He glanced down the sheer, brightly-lit front of the building. -_That's not going to be much help either._- With snipers on both sides, hiding on the far side of the chimney wasn't going to help. He looked around, checking the progress of the snipers. -_Not long enough for me to get clear of this roof silently before they get onto their perches, and I can't afford to let them see me, at least not now._- His eyes swivelled around, drawn inevitably to the chimney he was hiding behind. He peered into the murky depths, then half-shrugged. He grinned faintly to himself in the darkness as he hopped into the chimney. -_I guess Ryozha's rubbing off on me more than I thought._-

A few minutes later, on top of the neighbouring building, the Aerie Clan sniper eased himself into position. A faint thud from the building next door whirled him around, rifle ready. He scanned the rooftop rapidly, sighting in on the half-ruined chimney. Seeing nothing, he was about to sweep the roof again when a flicker of motion caught his eye. As he watched, the bricks of the chimney caved in slightly over a hole in the chimney.

Moving the scope downwards, he found a shattered brick on the pavement in front of the building. "&#! old buildings." he muttered. Into his mic, he said "Miyamoto- anything on your side?"

In his earpiece, his counterpart's voice crackled "Nah... think it was just a bit of chimney falling off."

"Agreed."

Inside the chimney, braced partway down, Killua grinned and peeked through the small opening he had made by knocking a brick out. -_Perfect!_- he thought, -_A nice, clear view._-

Gon watched, holding his breath, as a flashlight beam probed all corners of the room he hid in... all the floor-level corners, anyways. Gon braced himself just below the ceiling, holding himself aloft in the corner. The guard moved on, and Gon dropped soundlessly to the floor.

-_I don't think I can keep doing that..._- he thought, -_since I don't know how often they'll come around, and I need to be able to watch with no distractions..._- He glanced around the room, thinking quickly. Then he kicked the doorframe sharply, tumbling back as a good portion of the ceiling caved in. He heard a muffled shout from outside and the sound of running footsteps. The pile of rubble shifted slightly as the guard probed it, then a scattered beam of light probed from above, through the new holes in the ceiling. Gon eyed them uneasily, then relaxed -_Phew..._- he thought, exhaling silently, -_None of them are big enough for anyone to see much through._- He turned his attention back to the window and settled in to watch.

In his room, Ryozha shrugged himself over onto his stomach, wincing as the motion jarred his damaged shoulder. His sense of unease had intensified into a feeling of impending doom. He looked at the wheelchair again, then glanced at the window. He paused, thinking, then half-shrugged (this time being careful to shrug his UNhurt shoulder). He rolled out of bed and hopped on one foot over to the chair, gritting his teeth at the pain as each hop jarred his injuries. He grabbed the wheelchair and turned.

-_Man,_- he thought, -_either there's more adrenaline pumping than I thought, or else I've gotten further in my training with Master Wing than I thought. This thing feels ridiculously light._- Leaning on the chair, he half-hopped, half-hobbled over to the window, then smashed it with the chair. He scrambled out the window and dragged the wheelchair after him. Teetering on the ledge outside his window, he lobbed the chair off and hopped after it, grabbing hold and seating himself on the chair as it plummeted downwards.

Gon and Killua were both watching more or less the same scene unfold- the ruined doors flared with Nen-power, then opened on their own, and Boss Myoji's men entered them, disappearing into the blaze of light, and appearing a few seconds later carrying heavy crates. A human chain quickly formed, and they passed the crates to the waiting trucks. Then the men all piled into the trucks, and they departed.

Killua watched 'his' snipers depart, trying to pin down his growing sense of unease. As far as he could tell, he was alone. He dropped to the bottom of the chimney, crawled out, and hurried to the place where he was to meet Gon for their trip back to the Battle Tower.

He got there, and found it deserted. Then he heard a distant howling sound, and stared disbelievingly as a titanic fireball of scarlet Nen pinballed through the freeway traffic, leaving a trail of abruptly motionless, stalled cars in it's wake.

Ryozha swept Killua up without pausing and headed for Gon's last known position. "How..?" Killua managed to splutter after the disorientation of being near-instantaneously accelerated to thousands of miles an hour had passed. "Jumped off the tower. Absorbed the momentum of my fall to get started. Something's wrong." Killua nodded, shifting his position so he was hanging off the back of the chair. He watched Ryozha uneasily, wondering if his injuries would be a problem.

Gon had watched the trucks leave, the same as Killua, but seconds after they did, a big motorcycle had pulled up, and a shaggy giant of a man had stepped off, testing the air like a dog. -_Or a wolf..._- Gon thought, unsure why the comparison had suddenly popped into his head. A small, deranged looking man with a shock of wild hair and a Nen-aura of shifting, unstable colour that skittered madly from one end of the spectrum to the next, swirling like a window into the mists of a deranged mind appeared next to him.

Gon blinked. The man hadn't come up quickly -_Even Ryozha can't move THAT fast..._- Gon thought- and there had been no Nen-flash that usually signalled an emission-user's teleportation. -_Invisibility?_- Gon wondered, then tensed. The big man and his small companion were meeting with the guards that had been covering the area. One started to point towards the floor he was on. Gon ducked before the guard finished the motion. -_I planned on being able to just smash through the wall to get out, but if I make noise now, they'll catch me for sure._- Just then, his phone vibrated again. He looked at it in surprise, then answered it in a whisper. Killua's voice came from the other end, and he quickly outlined the situation he found himself in. With the occasional shouted interjection from Ryozha, they quickly formulated a plan.

The Iron Wolf followed the tantalizingly vague scent trail, Shea following closely behind him. (Whoever passed here was experienced at hiding his trail...) he thought. The voice that always whispered at the back of his mind stirred at that thought, then Shea giggled, breaking his train of thought. He glanced down at the smaller man, his face a passionless mask as always, but inwardly he was annoyed. He resumed his trailing, carefully following the scent down the ruined hallway..

In the room, Gon tensed as he sensed two people approaching. Neither was making any attempt to conceal their presence, and one of them had a powerful aura. The rubble in the doorway began to shift, then there was a shout from outside.

The Wolf paused, and Shea broke off, hurrying to the window of one of the open rooms. Outside, the guards who had remained were rushing off, chasing a small, shadowy figure.

Killua smirked in the shadows as the Mafiosi blundered through the dark after him. He made sure they never caught sight of him, only a faint rustle of movement as he passed.

Shea went back to where the Wolf waited, and they resumed their probing of the rubble around the window.

Gon's phone vibrated, and he leapt out the window, the arc of his jump carrying him to the dead center of the street. Just before he hit, Ryozha blurred past and snatched him up, simultaneously draining Gon's downward momentum while accelerating him horizontally to match Ryozha's speed, and hurtling off into the night.

The Iron Wolf stood back as Shea simply blasted through the rubble, clearing the doorway with a wave of his arm. He ventured in after Shea, and found the little man giggling angrily in the empty room, apparently on the verge of frothing at the mouth. He ignored him and took a deep breath, sorting the scents from the dust-laden air. "Someone was here." he said flatly. "Very recently- someone young, probably a boy, although not the same one who was in Myoji's office." He glanced down at the street, sweeping it with his vision. "Apparently, our prey is more cunning than we thought." Shea started bashing the walls with his fists, knocking massive chunks out of them, apparently oblivious of all else save his tantrum. The Wolf watched him for a second, unimpressed, then turned and left.

About half an hour later, the taxi bearing Ryozha, Gon, and Killua pulled up to the front of the Battle Tower. Gon helped Ryozha out and into his wheelchair, while Killua paid the cab fare. As they walked, with Gon pushing Ryozha's wheelchair, into the Battle Tower, Ryozha sighed.

Before he could say anything, Gon, who had been looking around, a little wide-eyed, at all the stares directed at Ryozha, said "Why's everyone staring at us?"

Ryozha glanced around, then back at Gon. He shrugged his uninjured shoulder and said "Probably staring at me- going to be some interesting rumours floating around about me for a while. I DID jump out the 197th floor window a little while ago, after all."

Killua and Gon stopped walking for a second to give him nearly identical incredulous looks, then Gon said "Oh! You needed to recharge your... uhm, kinetic... Nen, right?"

Ryozha gave him his trademark half-grin and nodded, then he sighed again. "I just wish Master Wing wouldn't find out about this." They resumed walking, and Killua looked at him.

"Why does he have to find out?" he asked.

Ryozha half-shrugged. "If he's heard about it already, he'll be at my room waiting. If he hasn't heard about it already, I'm going to call him and tell him. Better that he find out from me than find out by some random comment from one of the rubbernecking idiots who saw me float down out of the sky."

Master Wing was, in fact, waiting in Ryozha's room. And he did NOT look happy. Ryozha cringed a little, expecting a volcanic eruption of shouting. Instead, Master Wing merely said "Well?" in icy tones. Ryozha untensed a little and met Master Wing's eyes. When he did, he froze. Master Wing locked gazes with him for a long moment, then dropped his gaze, rubbing his forehead and shaking his head. "I had hoped..." he started, then paused. He heaved a sigh. "I had hoped you had a reason for ignoring my instructions for your training. To say nothing of the Doctor's orders!"

Surprisingly, it was Killua who came to Ryozha's defense. "Wing, Gon might have died if Ryozha hadn't come when he did." Killua said. He hesitated. "Me, too." he admitted quietly. "I've never seen an aura like that." Ryozha simply stared at him. -_Just when you think you know a guy..._- he thought.

Wing looked from one somber face to another, a slightly incredulous expression on his face. "You FOUGHT, Ryozha?"

Ryozha blinked, then shook his head. "No!" he exclaimed. "I just got them out- I was their 'escape driver'. I didn't even move my arm or my leg... well, at least not very much."

Wing backed off a bit, and said "Well... that much is good, at least." He frowned. "What exactly were you doing that your lives were in danger?" Gon brightened a little. "We're on a really important Hunt, Master Wing! It's for a legendary treasure that could..."

Wing cut him off with an impatient wave of his hand. "So... for this... treasure..." he trailed off, his eyes downcast. He looked up again, meeting Ryozha's gaze squarely. "I guess," he said finally, "it comes down to what is more important to you. Your training, or this treasure chase of yours."

Ryozha seemed to shrink a little, huddling in on himself in the wheelchair, but he held Wing's stare. After a long moment of searching his master's eyes, he bowed his head. "I wish..." he said haltingly, "I wish... that you weren't forcing me to make this choice, Master Wing." He drew a deep breath, and looked Wing in the eye again. "But if I have to, I have to. I got by without your training before, and, even though it hurts, I can get by without it again. This Hunt is too important. It could literally change the World."

Wing sighed, and shook his head. "I guess there's no denying your nature. Who am I to deny you your place in the history books?"

Ryozha blinked, surprised, and looked at Wing. He raised an eyebrow. "History books?" he said. "I'll be lucky if I'm allowed to talk about it before I die of old age." He paused, weighing his options. Then he half-shrugged, and told Wing of the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate, and Dr. Schrenk's plan for it. When he had finished, he said "So you see why I can't quit- this really is more important than my training. It's my chance to change the World for the better."

Wing sat back, the faraway look in his eyes fading as the spell of Ryozha's words broke, and said slowly "I see." He met Ryozha's eyes again, holding his gaze, then said "Your determination is that strong?" Ryozha nodded unhappily, breaking eye contact and looking downwards again. Wing stood. "Very well." he said. "It's settled then. I still have a great deal to teach you; we will resume your lessons as soon as you heal up."

Ryozha sighed deeply, then his brain caught up with his ears. He looked up, grinning. "Really?!" he exclaimed, "Thank you, Master Wing!"

Wing smiled slightly and then left, dragging Gon and Killua with him. "Now REST!" he ordered as he shut the door behind him.

The next week and a half passed with agonizing slowness for Ryozha- he beat every game he had on his laptop (Killua wouldn't talk to him for two days after he beat him seventy-three games to twelve in Killua's favourite fighting game), then was bored out of his mind. The day before the Doctor gave him a clean bill of health, he was down to seeing if he could make the TV blow up just by flipping channels really fast (the first two did, the third one wouldn't). The day the Doctor finally did give him a clean bill of health, he sprinted to the top of the Celestial Tower, leapt off, and jumped from building to building like some kind of enormous cricket.

He found Gon and Killua downtown at one of the markets, and grabbed them up in a whirlwind of speed. They wound up back on top of the Celestial Tower with Ryozha jumping up and down going "I can MOVE again!" Gon slapped Ryozha on the back nearly hard enough to knock him off the tower, and Killua looked annoyed at having been abruptly dragged halfway across town, but high-fived Ryozha nonetheless. "Come with me," Ryozha said, "I want to go tell Master Wing that I can finally continue training."

As they came up to Wing and Zushi's door, Ryozha suddenly stopped. He put his headphones to his ears, then prodded his player. "Weird... it turned on by itself..?" he said, then hesitated. "I didn't even know I HAD Aretha Franklin on this thing..." he mumbled, as the faint sound of a woman's voice belting out "R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me!" could be heard from the 'phones. He gave Gon and Killua a rueful half-smile and shrugged. "Lee has a bit of an odd sense of humour... it seems to have rubbed off in how he programmed this thing."

He pushed the door open, and a girl's voice said "Oh, good! My students have finally come." at the same time as Gon and Killua chorused "Bisuke?!"

Ryozha stared at the blonde girl in the frilly red dress for a long moment before saying "Bisuke..? Who are..." and then stopping. He stared again, shifting to Gyo, before saying "Miss Krueger..? What are you doing here..?"

Gon and Killua stared at him. Gon said "Miss Krueger?", and Killua said "You KNOW the old hag?" Bisuke smiled sweetly and backhanded Killua out the door and across the hall, landing him upside down against the far wall.

Killua groaned, got up, and said "Well... it's definitely her, all right..." Ryozha looked from Killua to Bisuke and back again a few times, then turned to Gon, a questioning look on his face. Gon sighed and shook his head. "They always do this..." he said, "I still don't really understand why."

Killua and Bisuke glared at Gon, and both said "HEY!" at the same time. Then they turned to glare at each other for a few seconds.

Bisuke broke it off first. "It's good to see you again, too" she said drily. "So... Ryozha." she continued. She walked around him, examining him from all angles while he stood stiffly, unsure as to what exactly to do. After a minute or two, she stopped in front of him and smiled at him.

He stared back warily. Her smile broadened a little, but all she said was "And how IS old Tenryu, anyways?" Ryozha looked at her flatly. "'Old' Tenryu?" he answered. "Grandfather said that he was three months younger than you..." then he ducked as Bisuke took a swing at him.

He gave her a lopsided grin as she glared at him, then she whirled to belt Killua, who was snickering. "So Bisuke used to go to your Grandfather's school?" Gon asked Ryozha. Ryozha shook his head. "No, I don't think so. She just visited sometimes... there might be some connection between the Shinjen Dojo and Grandfather's school... I know one of the underteachers from the Tenryu Hunter Academy went to the Shinjen Dojo years ago, maybe it was a teacher exchange." he shrugged. "It doesn't really matter- she came sometimes, usually to fight with Grandfather about something pointless."

Bisuke glowered at him for describing her arguments as 'pointless', but didn't bother trying to smack him again. After a moment, she said, rather archly "Actually, your Grandfather and I were students together for a short time. There's no connection between the two schools beyond that. So... now that introductions are out of the way, why don't we get down to training?"

After setting Gon and Killua to doing some Nen exercises and examining Ryozha's techniques for a while (Ryozha had glumly acquiesced to her teaching when she had pointed out that she was Wing's master, and therefore his also), Bisuke rocked back on her heels for a moment and thought. "All right," she said, "before I forget..." she called Killua over. "Killua... I remember that Gon mentioned once that your family has a special training program their servants use? Something about heavy clothing and brooms and... well, pretty much everything?" Killua raised his eyebrows, but nodded. "Do you think you could get a set of those sent out here?" Bisuke asked him.

Killua shrugged. "Sure." was all he said.

Bisuke smiled. "Good," she said, "you can go arrange to have them sent once we're finished this training session." Killua made a face, but went back to the exercises she had set him. Ryozha watched him wander off, grumbling, with an amusedly speculative look on his face. -_It looks like Killua respects Ms. Krueger a little more than he likes to let on..._- he thought to himself. Then he was jarred out of his thoughts by Bisuke.

Getting right in his face, she ordered "Here's what we're going to do. Wing has been far too indulgent of you and your reliance on speed-tricks and crutches like your music-speed controller. First off, I want you to burn off all the red Nen you're using to store kinetic power right now. Then we're going to start your training." Ryozha looked at her, a little wide-eyed, then raced off, out the window and down across York Shin.

The next few days passed in a blur for Ryozha- Bisuke's training was far more intense than Wing's, days and nights running together like melting wax as she turned up the pressure. After their third shouting match about whether Ryozha was doing something the right way or not, Killua's package full of weighted clothing and stuff arrived (it might or might not have been four days... Ryozha, by this point, was so tired he considered himself lucky he remembered his own name most of the time). Bisuke unpacked the crate (which both she and Killua handled as if it were weightless, much to Ryozha's exhausted disgust) and put the weighted clothing on an unresisting Ryozha, who promptly fell over.

The next day, once Ryozha had rested enough to stand on his own again, Bisuke resumed training. Gritting his teeth, Ryozha shambled through Nen exercises and strenuous workouts like Frankenstein's monster, clanking gently every time he moved.

After four hours, Bisuke called a halt. "That will be enough for today," she said, "there's no point in overdoing it." Ryozha, who was of the opinion he had passed the point of overdoing it about three hours ago, collapsed gratefully, only to be hauled back to his feet by Bisuke. "I want you to go for a cooldown run. WITH the weights." Ryozha blinked at her owlishly for a moment, then decided that doing what she wanted was less trouble than convincing her to let him lie there.

Before he went, though, Bisuke said "Wait a moment." She motioned Gon and Killua over. "I want you all to go together- Gon and Killua, this will help your speed, and Ryozha, this will help your control. In other words, Gon and Killua, I want you to try and keep up with Ryozha, and Ryozha, I want you to try and keep your speed to a level where they CAN keep up." The three looked at each other, then headed for the door.

When they returned, they were chatting easily. -_Running, at least, is one area where I can keep up with Gon and Killua's stamina and strength, even with all these weights._- Ryozha thought to himself. -_Still, it wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be to hold my pace down... maybe 'cause I'm so tired already. Mind you, it still wasn't exactly easy... if my focus slipped even for a second, I found myself shooting off way ahead._- Then he snapped back to the conversation they were having- Gon and Killua had been telling him how they had met Bisuke on Greed Island, and her obsession with sparkly things, especially all things gemstone-related.

For some reason, that tickled something at the back of Ryozha's brain, but he couldn't place it. He filed it for future reference, and told Gon and Killua a few stories about Bisuke's visits to his Grandfather's school. When they got back, Bisuke was waiting for them. "Wing has been telling me about your sparring sessions you have each night." she said without preamble. "It's a good idea, but for now, I don't want you to do it anymore, Ryozha. Gon and Killua, I'll be watching you for the first few nights. And Ryozha, I think you're ready for your first fight on the 200th floor." At this, Ryozha perked up- his registration on the 200th floor had been deferred until he had recovered from his injuries, so he still had more than two months before he **HAD** to have his first fight.

After Ryozha registered for his first 200th-floor fight, he found that he had four days before it was to happen. Those four days were filled with the most intense training yet, Bisuke vowing that she wasn't about to lose a student to his own incompetence. Finally, the day of the fight arrived. He awoke feeling refreshed and energized... or at least, as refreshed and energized as he ever did in the morning. He rolled groggily out of bed, then threw himself to the floor as a change in air pressure warned him of something coming hard at his head. His head whipped around, and he tracked what had been thrown at him.

A split second later, he was halfway across the room and snatching the candy bar out of the air. He nodded to Killua as he unwrapped it and started chewing on it. "Thanks... I think." he said. Killua grinned at him, and then Gon elbowed him out of the way.

"I can't wait to see how you do in this fight, Ryozha!" Gon told him.

Ryozha looked at him oddly and said, "Again... thanks, I think." Gon looked puzzled, and Ryozha laughed and poked him in the ribs. "Never mind." he said. He dug around in his pack, pulled out his clothes, and dressed in an eyeblink. Then he paused for a split second and yanked his jointed staff out of his pack as well. "We're allowed weapons at this level, right?" he said. He half-shrugged. "May as well take advantage of that." he said with a lopsided grin. He glanced at the time, then said "Well... still got a while before the match. Let's go for breakfast- my treat."

A couple of hours later, Ryozha arrived at the ring. Gon and Killua had gone to find their seats- Killua complaining that Ryozha's matches already cost 20,000 Jenis to watch- and Wing, Bisuke and Zushi were already seated. A few minutes before the match was due to start, Ryozha's phone rang. He pulled it out. "Hey- Ryozha here."

"I'll make this quick, Ryozha." Bisuke's voice came from the other end of the line, "If you win, I've prepared a surprise for you."

"Wha... er, wow... thanks, Bisuke." Ryozha said. He shut the phone, wondering to himself -_What's she up to now? A surprise is all well and good, but Bisuke's sense of humour is a bit weird..._- He shrugged. -_No time to worry about it now- game on._-

He walked out onto the arena floor to the roar of the crowd. Surprised, he glanced around at the sea of faces that presented itself. -_Whoa..._- he thought. -_At 20,000 Jenis a head..._- he paused, making a fast rough count of the spectators, -_Gyeesh, no wonder they can afford to give such exorbitant prizes at the lower levels..._- He glanced at the scoreboard. Huh... the oddsmaker's are calling this one a lot closer than my lower-level matches. Just then, his opponent walked in.

-_So that's Maita._- Ryozha thought. -_Big, bad, bald, burly and burnt are the first things that come to mind for this guy... lesse, if I remember right, he's four and two for win/loss. Looks like his Nen-baptism wasn't easy on him..._- Maita strode easily into the ring, the livid burn scars running down the left side of his face and head, all the way across part of his chest and ribs, ending in a cooked-looking claw where his left hand used to be, scars writhing like angry snakes as his muscles rippled. He brought his hand and claw together, pumping them in the air like a prizefighter. The crowd responded with a roar, and Ryozha glanced at the screens, where it was showing some of Maita's previous battles.

He focussed, sliding into speed-awareness and studying each of the flickering images carefully... or trying to, anyways. A headache was already threatening to form without the player. The first match was, as expected, a torrent of flames and the downfall of Maita. The second match was closer, but Maita still lost. After that, Maita appeared to start using... Ryozha stared closer, the roar of the crowd deepening until it was lost in the subsonic. -_The resolution's bad, but it looks like he's using... ice? Weird._- Ryozha thought. -_Then again, I guess it sort of makes sense, considering how he GOT his Nen. That means he's either Emission, although from the way it looks, he only projects it through the ground, so it's not too likely, or else he's Transformation. I'll bet on Transformation for now_._-_ With that thought, he brought his joint-locked staff from where he'd been holding it casually draped across his shoulders, unlimbered the joints, and blurred it through a couple of quick patterns. The audience roared appreciatively once more, and a brief glance at the screens revealed that they were showing a few of his fights from the lower levels. He grinned- actually, it looked like they were showing ALL his fights from the lower levels, since there simply wasn't enough footage to fill up the time slot otherwise...

Maita and Ryozha moved into the center of the ring and dropped into ready positions. The judge shouted "Match with points and KO! No time limit! Begin!!" and jumped back. Ryozha vanished in a flare of golden Nen, leaping high above Maita's opening strike. Maita grunted and deployed his Ren. Ryozha watched with interest from above as Maita's badly burnt left hand covered quickly over with a thick gauntlet of ice, while his right hand followed suit more slowly. Ryozha's speed awareness slipped slightly, and he landed a little awkwardly, catching a heavy one-two icehand smash with his staff before he could recover. He was forced back, then did a backflip to get clear. He darted in to land a series of rapid blows, aiming for Maita's relatively unprotected elbow joints. Maita laughed and grabbed him, hugging him in while his body temperature dropped. "Clean hit! Point!" the judge called.

Ryozha squirmed free, using some of the force he had stored from Maita's earlier strikes to force his arms open far enough, then using the rest to restore his body temperature. He frowned. -_I wish Bisuke hadn't insisted that I go into this fight with no absorbed kinetic power in my Nen... it would have come in handy for this one._- He dodged a couple more blows, then changed tactics.

-_The guy's obviously fast enough to grab me if I close... time to try something else._- Ryozha blurred out of reach, then started to run in superspeed circles around the ring, creating a dazzling circuit of golden Nen around the suddenly wary Maita. -_Good,_- Ryozha thought, -_he's not sure what I'm going to do next._- Focussing briefly, Ryozha started dumping the accumulated friction heat of his sprint on the inner side of the circuit, finally releasing it fully in a sudden jolt after a moment to create a pale ring of blazing friction fire.

Maita, who had been edging gently towards one side of the ring, obviously hoping to snag Ryozha on one of his passes, shrieked and lunged back to the exact center of the ring. -_Good again... exactly what I expected._- The shriek continued, deepening to a roar as Maita raised both arms above his head, bringing both ice-encased fists down on the center of the ring, creating a rapidly-spreading patch of slick ice... -_Uh... this, I didn't expect._- Ryozha barely had time to think as his speed focus faltered.

Out of control, he slid on the ice to tumble to a crashing halt in a heap outside the ring. Regaining his feet, he shook his head rapidly to clear it.

He grabbed up his staff as the judge called "Critical hit! Two points!", then hurried over to him. "You need to get back in the ring soon..." he said, but Ryozha waved him off.

"I know," he said, "just give me half a sec."

He thought fast. -_If what I saw is right, then this Maita guy creates ice by brute-forcing- that is, he uses his Nen to force the molecules of matter to slow down, so he's burning power to do it, not gaining it like I would be. Could be handy to know.- _He hopped back onto the now-slick ring, gliding easily along it. -_Maybe it's a good thing Bisuke made me come into this with just my own Nen... he thought, I tend to get so carried away with absorbing and redirecting kinetic force that I tend to forget that at it's most basic level, my Nen is about manipulating EXISTING motion._- He curved casually around Maita, propelling himself with his Nen and building up speed. Maita took a swing at him, but he brushed it aside and turned the momentum he picked up from that into a low sweep kick that sent him pirouetting away and Maita sprawling.

"Clean hit and down! Two points!" the judge called.

Ryozha spun to a stop and skated back to where Maita was scrambling to his feet. He leapt, bringing a series of lightning-fast bicycle kicks against Maita, who blocked them with his ice-fists. Ryozha caught the return strike on the centre section of his staff, turning the momentum from that into another backflip. He landed on his feet and skated around for another pass.

As he curved around, Maita stomped his foot, and a thin sheet of ice erupted between them. Ryozha quickly battered it to pieces with a few quick strikes from his staff, then paused. Save for an openings to see, breathe and speak through, Maita was now encased in a thick casing of armoured ice, and his ice-fists had now become either ice-spikes, or maybe ice-blades. Which, it was hard to tell, at least without getting closer than Ryozha cared to.

The now ice-armoured Maita stomped his foot again, and Ryozha stumbled, his left foot abruptly frozen to the icy ground. He nearly fell, then threw himself back, wrenching his ankle painfully as he dodged a whistling sweep of Maita's iceblade. He smashed the block of ice holding his foot with a quick staff-strike and scrambled back. -_Okay... he's a lot slower now,_- Ryozha thought, -_but he's also a lot tougher. I'd be willing to bet..._- he lunged forward, whipping the ends of his staff around with his Nen to block Maita's blades and bringing a crushing palmhand strike to Maita's armoured sternum with his free hand.

He bent back like a limbo dancer, shooting between Maita's legs and hopping briefly to avoid the clutching ice from Maita's answering footstomp. -_Yup._- he thought, -_I'm really gonna have to NAIL him to do much of anything._- He skated around in another lazy arc, a little surprised to hear the judge call "Clean hit! Point!" Guess this guy's judging by technique rather than actual damage. He shrugged and slid to a stop facing Maita.

Behind his icy mask, Maita growled at him and charged forwards, bringing his blades to bear. Ryozha dodged easily, then a little frantically for a few seconds, avoiding dozens of slashes, some of which would have left him somewhat shorter if they had connected... by about a head. Maita pressed his attack, and the dodges shifted from a little frantic to near-panicky. Bleeding from shallow cuts all over his face and arms, he jinked and ducked, trying to keep all his various body parts attached.

Finally, one hit came in so close Ryozha was forced to catch it on his staff or get spitted. The hit launched him backwards out of the arena to crash into the wall. He stumbled to his feet ("Critical hit and down! Three points!" the judge called) -_Bleah... Not being able to fine-control my speed awareness is distracting._- he thought. -_I can't fight and hold consistent speed awareness at the same time without music, at least right now, so things keep speeding up and slowing down. If I don't focus better, it's gonna get me killed._- He jumped back into the ring and glided in careful circles around Maita, who turned cautiously to always keep him in view.

-_Hmmm..._- Ryozha thought, -_he seems to be moving a lot more carefully than is really necessary... I'd be willing to bet that if he fell down, he wouldn't be able to get up without ditching the armour, at least for a second or two._- He continued to circle, watching carefully, and, the next time Maita had a foot lifted completely off the ground, he darted in, throwing himself onto his stomach and sliding into his opponent's leg. When he hit, he thrust his staff under Maita's descending foot. Maita's foot rolled off the staff and he stumbled, slipped, and went crashing down. He flopped for a moment, ("Down! Point!" called the judge), then started to release his armour. Ryozha lunged into the air and flipped over... Maita, who was struggling up, looked up just in time to catch the full force of Ryozha's down-smashing foot on the point of his jaw, crashing back into a heap ("Critical hit and down! Three points!").

After a moment, the judge approached Maita, slipping a little. He crouched and checked Maita's pulse and pupils. "KO!" he called, straightening up. Ryozha paused for a second, unsure of what to do, then shrugged and whipped his staff around in a couple of fast, showy spins, ending in a stylized 'ready' pose, grinning. Then he skated off the slowly melting platform, hopped down, and blurred out of the arena. After getting his cuts tended to, he headed out of the dressing room, where all his friends met him, Gon, Killua, Wing and Zushi all applauding, and Bisuke looking on in amusement.

Gon clapped him on the back, and Killua high-fived him when he got close enough, Zushi bowed, and even Wing unbent far enough to ruffle his hair. When their congratulations had died down, Bisuke stepped up and said "You did well, Ryozha." Ryozha favoured her with a cynical half-grin, waiting for the inevitable "but". It came, followed by a torrent of criticisms that left him feeling about five centimetres tall and stupid to boot. When Bisuke finally slowed, he was blushing bright red, and even Wing was wincing in sympathetic embarrassment. "However," Bisuke finished off, "overall, you did quite well. And you won, so as promised, I have a surprise. Since we're all here, we may as well all go."

Thirty minutes later, after Ryozha had showered and changed (re-donning his weighted suit at Bisuke's insistence) the two taxis they had taken pulled up outside a modest restaurant, set back a bit from the street. Everybody piled out and headed for it, until Ryozha brought the whole party up short by stopping abruptly.

His eyes shining and his stomach growling, he turned to Bisuke. "A Quanattese Restaurant! How on Earth did you find this place?" He turned to the others. "Get ready to meet some of my favourite foods." he said, winking. Then he hurried in (being careful not to accelerate to super-speed). The others were close behind, Zushi, Gon and Killua bursting with curiousity.

Inside, Bisuke dealt with the officious waiter's complaints of her only having reserved a table for two when she brought a party of six by ignoring them with magnificent high-handedness. Eventually, the grumbling waiter led them to a table and presented them with menus. His irritation faded a bit in the face of Ryozha's obvious enthusiasm for the food, and soon he was smiling and giving recommendations to Gon, Killua and Zushi. Ryozha promptly ordered barbequed ribs, stuffed potato skins and mixed vegetables; after some debate, Killua ordered the honey-garlic wings and fresh-cut fries platter (when warned that it normally served four, Killua just smirked), Gon had the 16 oz. Quanattese Ranch steak with salad and a double order of fries, Zushi and Wing both ordered clubhouse sandwiches and Bisuke had "just a salad". Eventually, the food arrived (Ryozha had already had to go out and do a couple of laps around York Shin, he was so impatient), and Wing and Zushi watched in frank amazement as Gon, Killua and Ryozha devoured heaping platters of food that looked like it would take twelve of them to finish.

Bisuke ignored them, obviously long used to Gon and Killua's eating habits, and enjoyed her "just a salad" (Chicken Caesar with enough croutons, dressing and meat that you had to hunt to actually find any lettuce in a bowl that normal people would use to make a salad for ten).

As they left the restaurant, stuffed and happy, none of them noticed the drone hovering high overhead. Across the city, in a tumbledown office building in an out of the way district, a light blinked as a computer started to work. A couple of seconds later, Daniel Smith was jerked out of his reverie and was throwing his van into gear, yelling at the techs in the back to have all units in the area converge on the Celestial Tower.

A short twenty minutes after that, Gon, Killua, Ryozha and the others pulled up in their taxis. Then, as if it had been rehearsed, six drab vans on either side of the street opened up simultaneously, disgorging five or six armed men (in the requisite dark suits and glasses) apiece. They surrounded the six (all of whom were glowing with Nen) and tried to hustle them towards the waiting vans. Bisuke took the lead and moved with them, grabbing Gon and dragging him when he looked like he wanted to be stubborn.

Ryozha sighed and released the friction fire he'd been building up, cautiously watching the men around him. Beside him, he sensed Gon, Killua, Bisuke and Wing all doing the same, carefully sizing up the force that had taken them. As they moved towards the vans, Bisuke, Wing and Zushi were split apart from the three boys and were led to a different van. At the entrance to the van, Gon, who was in the lead, hesitated. Killua glanced at Ryozha and jerked his head into the van, pushing Gon slightly. Ryozha nodded and followed, getting in without resistance. Inside, they were a little surprised to find themselves alone in the steel-reinforced back of the van. The door leading to the driver's compartment was locked, and the door that they had entered by quickly followed suit. Ryozha jiggled the handle, then glanced around briefly. As the van started up, he started to say something, but Killua quickly held up a hand.

Gon glanced at Killua, and nodded. Ryozha hesitated, then held up his hands and formed the phrase +You think they're recording us?+ with his Nen. Killua nodded, forming a slightly sloppy +Yes.+ in response. Ryozha thought quickly, then formed the phrase +Do you think we can talk like this, or do I need to find the bug and break it?+ Gon flashed a quick +SURE!+ with his Nen- or at least, that's what Ryozha thought he said- it was almost impossible to read it. Killua shook his head. Out loud, he said "We're going to have to be careful what we say. They're probably recording us." Ryozha looked at him strangely, and Gon formed a jumble of letters with his Nen. Concentrating hard, Ryozha thought he could make out the words +If we don't talk, it will seem weird to them.+ He plopped resignedly down on one of the benches that ran the length of both sides of the back part of the van.

"Do you think the others are alright?" Ryozha said. Killua just shrugged, and Gon said cheerfully "Master Wing and Bisuke are both there, and they're both really strong, so Zushi should be okay." Ryozha gave him a lopsided grin. Then he motioned the others over. They put their heads together, and Ryozha whispered "What with the road noise and us whispering, I don't think they can hear us very well." Gon and Killua nodded, bashing their heads together, and all three sat back for a second, rubbing their heads.

Then they bent together again. "No more nodding, 'kay?" Ryozha said in a pained whisper.

"Right." Gon whispered, while Killua just rolled his eyes. "These guys are almost definitely one of the Government teams that's after us, right?" Gon whispered.

Ryozha started to nod, but caught himself. "Probably." he whispered back. "Judging by the look I got at their gear, and these vans, they're one of the better funded groups- I think it's probably the Southern Peace, since I remember hearing that they had camera drones flying around all over York Shin, which I thought was sorta weird, since York Shin is PART of the Southern Peace. So I figured they were probably searching for me."

Killua said "It fits. Thing is, what are they going to do with us?"

Ryozha gave a half shrug. "I don't know... and I'm not sure I want to find out."

Gon tilted his head to one side, and said "I could probably smash the wall here with my Rock Fist- this is our best chance to get away."

Ryozha thought for a moment, then shook his head, nearly knocking heads with the other two again. "I don't think that's a good idea right now... they know where I am now, and they'll probably find out that you're working with me. If we just take off now, they'll come back with more men, or something. Better to just wait and find out what they want." Gon and Killua sat back, and Ryozha followed suit.

Gon and Killua looked at each other for a moment, then nodded in unison. Aloud, Gon said "We'll do it your way for now, Ryozha."

After a long ride (Gon and Killua did Nen excercises, for lack of anything better to do. Ryozha tried to join them, but he was nervous and upset, and not sure he'd given the right advice, so his control was so sloppy he nearly blew up the van), the van stopped. A few brief scraping, shuffling sounds later, the doors were thrown open to a harsh glare of blinding light.

Rough hands grabbed them and hustled them out of the van, then they were turned loose and prodded towards a waiting doorway with rifle barrels. Squinting through the glare, Ryozha risked a superfast glance around, noting with some surprise that only three of the vans were there. Apparently Bisuke, Wing and Zushi have ended up somewhere else... Ryozha thought to himself, Since I don't see them anywhere around. His glance around also revealed that they were being ushered into a lowslung building... -_No, a bunker!_- Ryozha realized with some surprise.

As they passed through the door, Ryozha got a good look at it and gulped. Judging by the look of the thing, he doubted even a dozen Gons, all hitting at once, could penetrate it. -_Great... and the walls are even thicker. If they want to do more than talk, we could be in trouble._- He glanced at his companions. Gon was doing his usual wide-eyed-with-wonderment bit, and Killua was looking increasingly edgy.

They passed rapidly through narrow hallways and down steel staircases, and shortly, (by Ryozha's best guesstimate, they were at least three stories underground when they stopped descending), they were in a surprisingly large room that seemed to be the nerve centre of the whole place. Wall panels blinked with dozens of real-time views of York Shin City and it's surrounding environs, and several monitors showed the faces of Ryozha and his friends, although, for some odd reason, the two largest pictures were Ryozha's own and Bisuke's. Somewhere in the range of twenty technicians sat at the computers, and six or seven guards ringed the area. The ten Black-Ops soldiers who had brought Ryozha, Gon and Killua in snapped to attention as a thin, worried looking young man approached them.

A tired smile flashed briefly across his face, rendering his anonymous face abruptly handsome, then it disappeared as abruptly as it came, leaving him even more sombre looking than before. He sighed deeply, and said, almost to himself, "In so many ways... I wish that this day never had to come." He came over, stood directly in front of Ryozha, and looked deeply into his eyes. "I had wished..." he paused again. "I had wished that when you left York Shin, that you were gone for good, beyond where I was able to chase you, at least until it was too late. But you're back."

Ryozha, Gon and Killua all looked at him very strangely, then Gon said "Uhm... WHY do you wish Ryozha didn't come back?"

The young man looked at him, as if seeing him for the first time. "Well..." he said, "it's simple. The Southern Peace, and especially York Shin City, revolve around money; its storage, its exchange, and it's use. What most people don't know, and what the leaders of this country and this city don't WANT people to know, is that any major fluctuation in the World's economy could leave this city a ghost town, and the country ruined, possibly dissolving it utterly as its neighbour's grab pieces of it when it's power is gone. The treasure that you are Hunting, my young Speed Hunter, could do exactly that." Ryozha looked at him owlishly.

When he didn't continue, Ryozha said, "And...?"

Daniel Smith looked down at Ryozha again and said "What it boils down to is this: you have been declared a threat to national security, and you're going to be imprisoned here, in this bunker, until the powers that be decide what to do with you. Pray that it takes some time; there are those who are advocating killing you outright."

Ryozha blinked. "Ah... this is somewhat unexpected." he said. "But... what about my friends?"

Daniel's mouth twisted with distaste. "Unfortunately, the Justice Minister has decided that it would be a public relations fiasco if it got out that we were holding a child against his will and without charges, so I'm afraid your two friends will have to stay with you." he said, then muttered "As if that's any better..."

Ryozha cocked his head to one side, then said "... two friends? What about the others?" Daniel looked at him oddly. "Others? Do you mean Biscuit Krueger's party? They were brought to a different entrance- I was going to interrogate her about HER hunt for the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate once I was finished with you."

Ryozha, Gon and Killua all stared at him for a while, slack-jawed, before Ryozha found his voice, saying "**BISUKE** was the other Hunter hired to find the treasure..?" as Killua muttered "Why that lying old hag..!"

Daniel Smith watched them for a moment or two, then shrugged. "I am truly sorry about this," he said, "but my duty to my country comes first. I will do everything in my power to make sure your stay here is as pleasant as possible. I will ALSO," he said, his voice hardening, "do everything in my power to make certain you do not escape." Ryozha nodded glumly, and he, Gon and Killua allowed themselves to be led out of the control centre and down the hall.

A short time later, at a still deeper level of the bunker, they were led into a small cell block. The cells were simply, but reasonably comfortably furnished. And they were antiseptically clean, all brushed steel and concrete. The guards herded them into separate cells, and then they were left alone. For a while, they didn't even try to communicate, then a distant shouting roused them from their torpor. Bisuke's voice could dimly be made out, shrill and angry. Eventually, Bisuke, Wing, and Zushi were all herded in and shut into the other cells.

After a long, uncomfortable silence, Ryozha said "So... Bisuke-sensei, when were you planning on telling me that you were the Hunter assigned to compete with me on the Grand Treasure Hunt?"

Bisuke was silent for a moment, then said "Does it matter, now?"

Ryozha blinked, then said "Were you planning on staying here?"

"Well..." Bisuke said, before they were interrupted by a shout of "First comes Rock! Jan... ken... pon... ROCK!", a terrific BANG! and a slight tremor felt through the floor.

Ryozha glanced around, sticking his head through the bars as best he could to see into the cell next to his, only to see a surprised looking Gon land on his rear, then rub at his fist and look at the bars in astonishment. Looking closely, Ryozha noticed that one of them was bent slightly.

He gaped. "That's ALL your rock fist did, Gon?"

Gon nodded unhappily, still nursing his fist. "I don't know what these are made of, but it's REALLY strong!" he reported.

There was a faint grunt from the cell on the far side of Gon's, then Killua's hands disappeared. Breathing heavily, he called "I tried bending them, but I can barely move them... I don't know what these are made of, but it seems to be almost indestructible."

Ryozha stared at the bars, his argument with Bisuke momentarily forgotten. Focussing deep down, he brought up all the reserves of Kinetic Nen he had stored. Looking at the resultant red-and-gold aura, he frowned. Then he hurled himself around his cell, sprinting as fast as he could move within the tiny space, swallowing all the kinetic power of the superheated air and sonic booms resulting from his speed. He strained forward, moving ever faster, pushing himself to his limit and beyond. Across the way, Bisuke, Wing and Zushi all stared at the chaotic storm of red Nen that had abruptly appeared in Ryozha's cell, as flares of golden Nen-lightning occasionally flickered out of it.

After a few minutes, Ryozha stopped, his sides heaving. Grinding his teeth against the pain of focussing his Nen so deeply, he brought the incredible power he had accumulated and concentrated, gradually, slowly forcing it to two tiny, brilliant points, one in each hand. Panting with the effort, he brought his hands towards one of the bar, one barely touching it above his head, the other touching just above his knees.

Bisuke called something, then shouted it, but he couldn't spare the attention to listen to her. With an explosive rush, he let all the kinetic power he had accumulated slam through the two points on the bar, each the merest fraction of a millimetre across. His control faltered as his awareness flickered between speeds, and he felt something... tear... in his aura. The lights dimmed, there was the terrible sound of wrenching metal, and then Ryozha passed out.

When he stirred, the first thing he heard was Bisuke's irritated voice. "I TOLD you not to bother." she informed him. "But you seem to be listening about as well as always."

Groggy and annoyed, he said "Why should I bother listening to what my enemy says?" from the floor.

Before a shocked Bisuke could respond, Gon yelled "HEY!" from next door. "What do you mean, your enemy? Just because she's assigned to hunt the same thing you are! Don't be stupid- that just makes her your competitor, not your enemy. And she's STILL your teacher- you accepted her as such, and you should keep your word."

Ryozha started to answer angrily, then hesitated. He hung his head, dragging himself to a sitting position on the floor, straining against the heavy weights he was still wearing. "I..." he started softly, "I guess... I'm more angry with myself. It was my stupid, _stupid_ advice not to escape from the vans that ended us up here."

Bisuke shook her head and said firmly "No. That was the advice that I would have given you if I had been there. And obviously Gon and Killua felt the same as you did, or they would have told you so." Ryozha looked at her in wonderment, and she frowned. "I'm not getting soft on you," she told him, "but I'm not going to have you wallowing in useless self-pity either, especially for no reason."

Ryozha half-smiled, then said "All the same... thanks, Bisuke." He paused. "Er... why were you going to tell me not to bother?"

She glared at him. "Weren't you paying ANY attention when you were being brought down here?" she demanded. Ryozha stopped, shook his head to clear it, then sat for a moment thinking. He cast his mind back across all the various impressions he had picked up as he had travelled through the bunker. Eventually, he said "Traps...?"

Bisuke nodded approvingly. "Not exactly," she said, "but close. There are dozens of electronic security points throughout this bunker- it looks like this bunker was specially designed to hold Nen-users. I suspect that even the Genei Ryodan would have a hard time breaking out of here. Automated machine guns, pressure plates that trip alarms and seal doors, electrified floors... and those are just the ones that I saw. I'm sure there are poison gas nozzles, collapsing walls or ceilings, vacuum traps, flamethrowers and various other things that are even more exotic. Also... have you taken a look at the bar that you tried so hard to break yet?"

Ryozha looked up, surprised. His eyebrows climbed and he stared in amazement at the strange sight before him. The bar that he had attacked was indeed broken in two places, just as he had planned. What he HADN'T planned on was the fact that it would simply hover in place, slightly mangled at each end, but otherwise apparently as immovable as before. He tested it, shoving hard on it, but to little avail.

A second later, a voice came from nowhere. The worried-looking young man who apparently ran the place said "I must say, Ryozha Tenryu, that you managed to give the Techs absolute fits with whatever it was that you just did. You blacked out most of the Southern York Shin power grid and nearly overloaded our transformer here... and it's built to handle a direct lightning strike! Anyways, I'm sure you noticed that even if you manage to break the bars, there are other... forces... at work here. Please don't do anything like that again... I'm sure you've noticed yourself, but you nearly died doing that- we nearly had a trauma team in there to resuscitate you when your bio-signs dropped." The voice stopped for a minute or two, then came back on. "Oh... by the way," he said, "I never really got to introduce myself. I'm Colonel Daniel Smith, of the Southern Peace J-Gold taskforce."

After Daniel Smith had been silent for a few minutes, Bisuke said "Well... we've learned a few things, at least."

"Right," Gon said, "they can hear everything we do."

"And," Killua continued, "there's something that protects the bars. It's not Nen..."

"Also," Wing continued for them, "they have delicate sensors directed at us- they knew when Ryozha passed out... and his heart stopped. That was a foolish chance you took, Ryozha." he said reprovingly. "As for what's protecting the bars... I'd guess beams of magnetic force." he finished.

Ryozha glanced across at his under-teacher, then reached for the broken bar, probing it delicately with his sixth sense. After a moment, he pulled his hand away, brushing it across another couple of bars, then nodding. "There are... I guess I'd call them tubes... of magnetic force, of incredible power, inside each bar. They're holding each bar in place, and keeping them almost perfectly straight."

Wing sighed. "The problem is," he said, "what do we do with what we've found out?"

The others all fell silent, until Zushi spoke up. "Uhm... isn't there something else important that we're missing (osu)?" Zushi fell silent for a moment when everyone looked at him, then continued "He said that we nearly blacked out York Shin... that's important, isn't it? (osu)"

The others were dead silent, then Bisuke said "Hmm..." and spread her hands in front of her, forming the words, in an elegant, almost gothic script, +Killua... how much electricity can you generate if you store it up?+ Killua shrugged, and, one letter at a time (holding his arm out through the bars so that Gon and Ryozha could see it too), laboriously formed the words +I don't know... I've never tried.+ Bisuke thought for a second, then formed the sentence +Do your best- start storing up electricity now, and keep going for as long as you can.+

The next day, their cells opened by themselves. A door at the end of the hallway opposite where they came in opened up to reveal a well-equipped large gymnasium. In one corner of the gym, a hot breakfast was waiting. Bisuke clapped her hands with glee. "We can continue our training here easily! All right... first off..." she said, then barked out a rapid string of orders that had Gon, Killua and Ryozha training as hard as ever.

Wing took Zushi to one side, and they too continued their training. After a few hours, the door back to their cellblock opened, and a computerized voice requested that they return to their cells so that lunch could be brought out. As they headed back to their cells, Ryozha flashed a quick Nen-message to Killua- +If Bisuke will let us spar, hit me as hard as you can without your Nen- I need to store up Kinetic Power to help us escape.+ Killua glanced at the message, then nodded. Back in their cells ("You will only be here a few minutes. Please wait."), Bisuke waved for Ryozha's attention, then flashed a message of her own. +I saw what you 'said' to Killua- I agree. You'll spar with him every day while he stores up electricity.+ Ryozha gave a cynical half-smile. At least **something** was going right.

The next few days passed relatively uneventfully- with no other possible distractions, training progressed quickly. Ryozha, who had been having a really hard time with the Reinforcement exercises (at Bisuke's request, the somewhat mystified Colonel Daniel had brought in a load of bricks to the gym) was able to move from smashing thirty or so bricks using Shu up to more than a hundred in only two days.

Each afternoon, Gon, Killua, Ryozha and Zushi all sparred, with Bisuke and Wing occasionally joining in to show them a finer point. Even Colonel Smith appeared impressed by all this, to the point where he would comment occasionally over the loudspeakers. What he didn't see is Ryozha's silent inferno of red Nen as he stored up the power from the terrible blows Killua would rain on him during every sparring match. By the fifth day, Killua was starting to spark as he walked, looking drawn and shaky, and Ryozha was shifting between speed-states, almost totally unable to control it.

By the end of the sixth day, Ryozha said "It's gonnahavetobe soon- kinetic energy that IstoreinmyNen starts to dissipate afteraboutaweek. It's already startingtogo."

Bisuke glanced to Wing, then nodded grimly. "Killua?" she said.

Killua groaned faintly, then managed to jerk out "I... don't think... I can hold it... much... longer."

"All right." Bisuke said. "It sounds like it's time. Everybody... once I yell 'Go', jump. And Killua... release your power."

"Power..?" came Colonel Smith's voice over the loudspeakers. "What do you mea..." then was cut off as Bisuke yelled "GO!"

An actinic flare of light... a terrible crash of thunder that seemed to last for hours... then darkness and silence.

When Ryozha's hearing returned, he heard Bisuke's voice... or..? It sounded like Bisuke, only much deeper, and coming from far higher in the darkness than Bisuke's voice should.

Then he heard Wing comment in shocked tones "Master Biscuit... you've shifted into your true form?"

"Not now, Wing." the new Bisuke-voice snapped. There was a sudden series of tearing, wrenching sounds, and Ryozha had a sudden mental image of bars being swept aside like a curtain.

"Killua... are you all right?" Bisuke (if it was her) asked. Killua's shaky voice came from Ryozha's right. "I... think so." he said.

"Good." Bisuke said shortly. "Can you all get yourselves loose?" she asked.

Ryozha moved over to his own bars to the accompaniment of tearing, snapping sounds from Wing's cell, a shout of "First comes Rock... Jan... Ken... Pon... Scissors!" followed by a screeching sound, like nails on a chalkboard. There was a split second of silence, then a shout of "First comes Rock... Jan... Ken... Pon... ROCK!" followed by the CRUMP of an explosive concussion, followed by the tinkling of bar-shards hitting the far wall. He put his hands on the bars, and feeling no more magnetic beams holding them in place, simply pulsed kinetic force into them, blasting them loose. Of course, given how shaky his control was at the moment... it was fortunate that he had decided to try and drive the bar into the ground; otherwise, Wing, Zushi, and Biscuit alike would have been shredded by flying shrapnel.

A few moments later, Gon had bashed Zushi loose, and Killua had mustered the effort to knock his blackened bars loose after curtly saying he needed no help.

Once they were all free, the voice that Ryozha had started to think of as "Deep Bisuke" said "This is our best chance to get out- with the power off, most of their automated defenses won't work. And..." there was a brief sound of breaking metal, "their bulkheads can't stand up against us. Can any of you see well enough to lead us?"

Ryozha spoke up after a second. "I'vealready beenupacouple oflevels- therearen't anysoldiersaroundthatI couldfeel... and IthinkIcansort ofsensethe wallsaroundus, atleastenoughnot torunintothem."

Deep Bisuke said "It will have to do. Let's go." With Ryozha leading the way, they made their way toward the surface.

After they had ascended three levels, the lights came back up, and along with them the defenses. Unfortunately, they seemed to be malfunctioning badly, sentry turrets firing wildly at nothing, spraying the air with bullets, gas traps filling empty hallways with billowing poison clouds, electrified floors sparking and shorting out. The Hunters looked at one another, then shrugged in unison, moving on.

Wing, Bisuke (whose voice had gone back to normal sometime before the lights went back up, and didn't look any different), and Gon simply smashed the traps to pieces. Killua attacked them with a sharpened blade-hand and his super-yoyos. Zushi actually managed to take control of a few of the simpler traps with his manipulation Nen, turning sentry guns on each other and shutting off gas traps. Ryozha... Ryozha moved in a trance, sweeping entire hallways clear with a wave of his hand and a blast of pent-up kinetic power. He felt like he was riding a monstrous wave, a tsunami of power that had been stored, one sixteen-ton punch at a time.

Wing and Bisuke's training chanted in his mind like a mantra as he desperately tried to hold in the walking bomb he was afraid he would become if he let his control slip even slightly.

It was a single floor below the Control Center of the bunker that disaster struck. Ryozha was scouting ahead of the others, when a malfunctioning electrified floor plate suddenly activated under Ryozha's feet, frying him with millions of volts. He jerked, twitched, then lost consciousness. With a thunderous roar, all the kinetic power he had been holding in his Nen broke loose, coring the bunker like an apple.

When the others arrived at a dead run, they found Ryozha lying, unconscious and barely breathing, in the bottom of a spherical hole nearly seventy metres across, torn from the concrete and steel of the bunker by the sudden explosion of Nen. A few moments later, other, secondary explosions rocked their prison.

"Sounds like Ryozha blowing up broke something important!" Killua yelled. Gon grabbed Ryozha up and the six raced for the surface and, hopefully, freedom.

They sprinted through the corridors, pausing for a split second in the burning control room (Bisuke, apparently out of spite, ripped loose one of the computer stations and threw it through a wall), and now Gon took the lead. Racing up steps, they passed a still functioning alarm, which Killua silenced with an irritable slash.

"Where do you think everybody is?" Zushi asked, panting.

"Probably waiting outside." Bisuke told him grimly. They reached the last floor, and all of them (save the unconscious Ryozha) tensed for the inevitable confrontation.

Shortly, they reached the hallway of the massive portal that Ryozha, Gon and Killua had passed through nearly a week before. Colonel Daniel Smith stood before it, flanked by armed guards, a sad look on his face.

"I'm sorry it had to end like this." he said as they raced towards him. "But I cannot let you escape. Perhaps, in another life... well, goodbye." he said, abruptly at a loss for words.

He stepped back, and there was the deep-throated roar of a large engine started up. The huge portal began to move as a massive tractor surged against it, forcing it closed. Bisuke and Wing immediately lunged at it, straining against the force of the engine. Killua headed that way, and Gon started to follow, then stopped. He grabbed Killua's sleeve and said "Wait! I have an idea. Hold Ryozha for a moment." With that, he shrugged Ryozha off his back, and Killua caught him. Then, with a shout of "First comes Rock... Jan... Ken... Pon... ROCK!" he smashed the far weaker hinges of the giant door, causing it to loll drunkenly and scrape to a heavy halt.

Soldiers immediately rushed up, guns drawn and pointed, but Daniel just waved them off. He looked tired, and older, somehow. "Very well." he said. "You've won. I think that my men could probably manage to cut you down, but I don't want to gamble their lives, given the abilities you displayed in there. I'm going to recommend to my superiours that you be left alone, to pursue the treasure or not. We cannot hold you."

Bisuke eyed him sharply, and he shrugged. "Even if we had more bunkers like the one you destroyed, a repeat of that performance could bankrupt York Shin without any need for the treasure to be found. You burned out the entire south side's power grid, and badly damaged the other grids. Entire neighbourhoods will be without power for days, weeks... maybe even months."

Bisuke looked at him, but before she could say anything, Gon said "I think maybe I could help, at least with some money..."

Killua nodded in agreement, and said "Between us, we have about two billions Jenis. We could contribute at least some of it to the rebuilding, even though it was the city officials that brought this down on you." Daniel looked at them, surprised, and even his normally imperturbable men looked nonplussed.

Bisuke nodded. "We do have certain... resources available to us. We can help financially with the rebuilding."

Daniel paused in silence for a long moment, then said. "You know, I think that will go a long way towards easing my superiour's minds. I'll tell them of your offer, although pride may prevent them from accepting." He turned to go, his men splitting up and heading for the vans. He hesitated at the door of his personal van, turning to the Hunters and saying "I'm sorry... I'm sure you understand why I can't offer you a ride back to the city." He paused before he got back in his vehicle. "One other piece of advice that I probably shouldn't give you. I know that the boy, at least, has been hired by the International Money Council. If they were to find out about this interference in a Hunt that they had sanctioned... it would go... poorly... for the Southern Peace." Bisuke gave him a look, then nodded. Meanwhile, Killua had pulled out his celphone and was dialing.

As the van pulled away, Daniel reached for the radio microphone. "All units..." he called into it, "discontinue surveillance activities in York Shin." One of the techies in the back commented "You sure you want to do that, Colonel? Even if we aren't going to move against them, it would be useful to know what the Speed Hunter and Hunter Krueger are doing." Daniel shrugged. "Without the bunker, we've lost more than half our stock of drones, and the ability to coordinate them on a larger scale. We've also lost more than 90 of our computer power. I'm not sure surveillance on that group is even possible anymore." He sighed, and got into the van.


	4. Chapter 4

Coasting on the edge of consciousness, Ryozha was dimly aware of... presences, other voices who shared the space he was in.

"Thank you for the tea, sensei. How is he?"

"No change. A... troubling... child. I had to all but throw Gon out of here in order to get him to go for something to eat. Even Killua is acting visibly worried, although he'd rather gouge his own eyes out than admit it. The doctors say that with a shock like that, there's a risk that he may remain comatose for years."

"Although the one doctor did say that there's also a possibility that he could wake up any time."

"True... it would be just like him to wake up five seconds after we'd given up all hope. It sometimes seems the boy does these things simply to be contrary."

"Are you talking about trying to re-teach him Nen, sensei?"

"As you well know. Honestly, it's enough to drive me crazy. At times, he's casually pulling off things that I'm not even sure I could attempt, and at the same time, he can barely manage things that you could do in your first month with me. And YOU were a lousy student."

"Thank you, sensei. You are as blunt as ever. Did you ever call his family?"

"Yes, shortly after I called for an ambulance and a taxi. Old Tenryu said that he would inform the boy's parents, but that the boy 'would not appreciate our interfering with his hunt'. A strange family, but a strong one."

"Indeed..."

Consciousness faded again, and Ryozha floated in darkness. Images of rings, maps, and vast treasures danced across his mind's eye, guarded over by a monstrous, looming form wielding a strange weapon. He broke and ran, sprinting over the dreamscape as only he could, but turned when he heard laughter. The monstrous form was no more distant, but now, at it's feet, lay the broken bodies of Gon and Killua. They had not gone down easily- black ichor dripped from wounds all over the monstrous body, but they had gone down nonetheless.

Ryozha screamed through the nightmare, denying that it had ever happened, but the thing only laughed louder. He ran again, racing before the laughter, until something inside him snapped. A red film covered his vision as he turned, the laughter droned down into the subsonic, and the creature stopped as if frozen in amber. Already wounded, it didn't have a prayer against the berserk Ryozha, who tore it to supersonic ribbons.

When Dream-Ryozha came to himself, he was standing over the mangled remains of the creature. Gon and Killua were nowhere to be seen. He stood for a long time.

A chill settled over the dreamscape, bitter cold slicing through his bones as the creature faded to a skeleton, then crumbled to dust. The ring sprayed out a magnificent map before him, then faded, glinting mockingly, crumbling into dust the same way the creature had. As he stood, acres of gleaming treasure mounded itself around him, titanic mountains of gold, oceans of gems. They too faded, turning to ash and blowing away.

As he stood, locked in a nightmare that would not end, other presences intruded. Voices he didn't know skittered across his mind, like a convention of insects screaming.

"Vital signs are going crazy!"

"Administer 20ccs of... &#! Now his vitals are going the OTHER way!"

"His temperature is going up and down like a yo-yo! The heart monitor just EXPLODED..!"

Then a familiar voice slid into his mind, gently. "Shh... it's going to be okay, Ryozha. I'll MAKE it okay." Fiery orange Nen splashed across the dreamscape, and Ryozha let go, the nightmare fading.

Abruptly, he was somewhere else. Sitting up groggily, he glanced around. A cursory inspection told him he was in a hospital room, with three orderlies trying to drag a stubbornly resisting Gon out of the room, while an amused Bisuke looked on. He watched this scene a little blearily for a bit, until Gon happened to glance his direction, threw off all the hospital workers with a casual shrug and rushed over to give him a hug, nearly throttling him.

Once he had managed to disentangle Gon from his neck, Ryozha looked over at Bisuke, who he could have sworn had tears in her eyes. She turned to glare at the orderlies, and said "OUT." in a voice that brooked no argument. When she turned back to Ryozha, her eyes were clear, and she smiled. "Anybody ever tell you that you're so stubborn and wrong-headed you're even that way when you're _UNCONSCIOUS_?"

Ryozha frowned, his head clearing rapidly. He glanced around again, but his gear was nowhere in sight, and he wasn't wearing his watch. He thought quickly, then said "How long has it been?"

Bisuke's smile faded a bit, then returned, a little maliciously. "Nearly three weeks. If you don't get back to it soon, I'm going to find that treasure WELL ahead of you."

"Now THERE'S an incentive to get well." Ryozha commented wryly.

He turned to Gon, but before he could say anything, Gon said "No word from Ja... that guy yet, but Ping Lee said to give you this..." he dug in his pockets, then frowned, and dug deeper, then pulled off his pack, set it on the end of Ryozha's hospital bed, and rummaged around in it. "I know I had it in here **SOME**where..." he said, turning his full attention to finding whatever it was he was hunting for.

After watching him for a minute or two, Ryozha turned his attention to Bisuke. "So where are the others? Are they all right?" Bisuke nodded.

"I sent Wing and Zushi back to their training- no sense disrupting Zushi's learning so much, especially since you are MY pupil now. Killua is also off training- I'm letting him and Gon watch you in shifts. If I hadn't thrown him out of here, they'd both be here... as it was, the only way I could keep them out was by letting one of them watch you at all times."

Ryozha looked at her, and then glanced out the door, not sure whether or not to look for a Killua-shaped dent in the wall there. He DID see a discoloration on the wall, but it might just have been his imagination.

He shrugged, then shook his head. "I don't think I'm _ever_ going to figure Killua out..." he muttered.

Bisuke smiled softly, and commented "In his own way, he cares for his friends just as much as Gon does..." then she broke off and started to laugh when Ryozha yelped "That's my FOOT, Gon! You're at the BOTTOM of your BAG!"

Later that day, once Ryozha had checked out of the hospital (he dealt with his doctor's objections by ignoring them), they returned to the Battle Tower. Once Ryozha had settled in a bit (Gon had eventually found Ping Lee's gift- it was a more advanced version of Ryozha's digital camera, suitably imbued with Nen), Bisuke took him aside for an evaluation. After studying his aura for a moment or two, she slapped her forehead. Reaching under his bed, she pulled out the Zaoldyeck training weights. Ryozha sighed and put them on.

Stumbling a little, he commented "Bleah... apparently three weeks of bedrest wasn't all that helpful to my training."

Bisuke nodded. "It wasn't. Now show me your Ren again..."

After a few gruelling hours of Nen excercises (Killua and Gon had wandered in about half an hour into it, with the former hucking a chocolate bar at Ryozha's head- once Ryozha opened it, he found that it was his favourite kind), Bisuke stopped the three boys. She set Gon and Killua to doing... well, basically the Nen equivalent of arm wrestling, attempting to overcome each other's Ten by Nen alone.

Ryozha she took aside, then handed him his headphones and player. "I'm about to assign you your toughest bad-habit-breaker yet, Ryozha. I want you to switch between maintaining full speed awareness and normal speed while the music **DOES THE OPPOSITE**." Ryozha looked at her disbelievingly, then swallowed, taking the proferred piece of gear.

Five seconds later, he was sweating with the strain of holding his concentration against the music, every limb trembling. Bisuke was letting him do it without moving at first, but she warned him that within one week, he would have to do it while doing simple combat forms, and the second week he would be sparring with her.

After two days, Ryozha was a wreck. By the fourth day, he couldn't even think straight any more, but Bisuke was merciless, driving him to exhaustion and beyond. By the sixth day, things were a little easier, and he could almost hold a normal conversation while fighting the music. By the end of the week, he had tensed up again, nervous about trying to move while fighting the conditioned reflex.

In a way, he was right to be nervous- on the first day of the second week, he twitched and jerked spasmodically, nearly tearing his arms out of their sockets with nothing other than the forces warring within him. By the third week, he could move without risk of injury, but still wasn't very steady, the hair-fine focus needed to remain on one plane of awareness slowing his movements and his perceptions.

Bisuke didn't display even the slightest concern, driving him ever harder, landing devastating blows every time he made the slightest mistake. Finally, at the end of the third week, Bisuke came in and sat on the end of his bed while he was resting. "I've arranged a fight for you." she told him. "It's against the Hook."

Ryozha paused thoughtfully. "I... think I've heard of him, somewhere... probably here."

Bisuke nodded, then motioned Wing into the room. He came in holding a videotape.

"Oh... hi, Sempai. I haven't seen you in a while." Ryozha greeted him.

Wing nodded cordially to him, then put the videotape he had been carrying into the VCR. He pushed his glasses back up on his nose, and began to speak very seriously as the tape started to play.

"The 'Hook', as he is called, is a thug. Nothing more, nothing less. He likes causing pain, and is very good at it. He has won six matches at this level..." the screen showed a tiny, wiry man walking into the arena, then blurring forward to messily tear off one of his opponent's arms. "And every single one of his opponents have died in the arena itself." On the screen, the tiny man unwrapped a hook and chain from his arm, whipping it around at speeds the camera couldn't follow, until his opponent was hopelessly entangled in it.

It impacted mushily, embedding itself into the Hook's enemy's chest just below the heart. Then the Hook started tearing at the man, reducing him to hamburger, blow by crippling blow. Ryozha wanted to turn away, but held his gaze on the screen, holding his heaving stomach in place with nothing more than his will.

Five more matches followed, each one worse than the last. By the end of the sixth fight, the Hook's opponent was little more than a stain, and the referee was shielded behind a steel cage. After some more advice from Wing, Bisuke looked Ryozha up and down.

"You're afraid of him, aren't you?" she said.

"Who... wouldn't be?" Ryozha asked queasily, still trying to keep from vomiting.

Bisuke cocked her head and looked at him. "He's a straightforward reinforcement user... the only strange variable is that chain of his, and that's not even imbued with much Nen. Killua or Gon could probably take him without too much trouble. Even though he's stronger than you... well, let me put it this way. Are you going to lose to an opponent who is both slower and stupider than you?"

Bisuke paused for a moment, then added "You're going to be fighting the way you've been training for the last three weeks- your player will be set at normal speed. It will be up to you to control your speed and awareness." Seeing Ryozha's panicked look, she relented slightly. "However, you will be allowed to absorb as much kinetic energy as you like before the match, and to take in your staff."

The day of the fight drew near quickly, and Ryozha's preparations became frantic. Every moment he didn't spend training, he was absorbing vast quantities of kinetic energy from every source he could lay his hands on, to the point that fighters two rooms down from his were complaining that his aura was infringing on their rooms. Finally, the night of the battle arrived.

Ryozha walked into the ring in what felt like a parody of his usual strut. The appreciative roar of the crowd made him even more nervous, and he looked around, wondering where the Hook was. Then the crowd noise died down abruptly, replaced by a nervous hush.

A hush, that is, except for a distant chant of 'Hook! Hook! Hook!' from high in the stands. Ryozha glanced around as his enemy approached, finally tracing the chanting to a small, morbidly dressed group waving banners emblazoned with the word "Hook" and crude splatters that Ryozha could only assume were meant to be blood.

He shuddered slightly, wondering what kind of people would cheer for such a madman. -_At least Hisoka has STYLE..._- he thought to himself. -_This guy gives off the same kind of murderous vibes that nutsoid clown did when I was on the Hunter exam, but... well, Hisoka had better control, I guess... or something. Or maybe not... he DID kill a judge that year and get kicked out... Sigh... this is sad. I'm trying to distract MYSELF. Bah._- He gave himself a mental shake and slipped his headphones on. He smirked to himself at what came up. -_Switchfoot... "This is your life." Good music for this fight._-

The referee brought his hand down sharply, and Ryozha focussed, easily dodging the Hook's first demented rush. The little man came back twice, getting close once, then missing entirely. A look of mad calculation came into his eyes, and he flicked his hook out, loosening enough chain to cover the entire arena platform.

Ryozha gave him a mean grin. -_Perfect... exactly according to plan._- he thought. Raising the level of his speed awareness, he watched as the hook slowly jerked through the air, speeding up and slowing down randomly as his control slipped. He concentrated grimly, managing to just barely snag the hook with his jointed staff and suck out its massive kinetic force.

Then, without waiting for the Hook's attempts to free it, he slammed kinetic energy through the chain, cracking it like a whip and hurling the little man screaming out of the arena. Unfortunately, he misjudged the power thanks to the constant distraction of needing to fight his own engrained instincts, and his staff was torn from his hands.

In the stands, Wing turned to Bisuke as they watched the Hook get thrown into one of the arena walls with stone-shattering force. "Are you sure this is wise, Sensei?" he asked her.

Bisuke looked at him for a long moment (below, the Hook fought to dig himself out of the rubble, scrabbling frantically to get back into the ring so he could maim his target), then said slowly, "Wise? No. I'm not sure it's wise." she paused (the Hook was nearly clear, smashing the chunks of rubble into gravel in his haste to get at Ryozha)

"I **AM** sure it's necessary, though. The boy has been dependant on that silly music trick of his for too long. A fight with an opponent this strong, who wants nothing more than to kill him, will either burn the need out of him, or make it so that he can't change speeds without it for the rest of his life." (The Hook was free, lunging towards the arena in little hops while throwing away the remnants of his broken chain).

In the arena, Ryozha was thinking hard, trying to come up with a new strategy while the world wobbled and spun around him. He cursed mentally -_I'm getting dizzy from the constant changes of speed... I have to hold on!_- Abruptly, the Hook was in front of him, grabbing his arm. Ryozha shook him off, blasting his hand loose with a pulse of kinetic power. The Hook gibbered and darted back, then lunged in. Ryozha hurled him away again with another blast of kinetic power, then looked down at himself.

-_Not good..._- he thought giddily, -_I've already burned off more than half my kinetic reserves through fighting off this guy's strength and through wasting it because I can't control it properly 'cos of having to focus so hard on maintaining speed awareness... and I don't think I'm able to hold as much as usual still- blowing up like that messed me up pretty bad. Maybe if I..._- He lunged, blurring across the arena, smashing into the Hook like a runaway train, slamming him with hundreds of tons of kinetic force.

The little killer simply took it, staggering back a couple of steps, then coming back at Ryozha again. Ryozha jinked and dodged, managing to get a hit in here and there, but all the time, the world swam in and out of focus as his poor control slipped further and further.

Then the Hook landed a stunning blow on Ryozha's face, and if he hadn't seen it coming just in time to get Ken up to defend, it would have torn his head right off his shoulders. As it was, Ryozha went bouncing out of the arena, skidding until he fetched up against the wall. The Hook moved to follow him, and Ryozha lay there in pain, too dizzy to move. The world swam in front of his eyes, speeding up and slowing down sickeningly, and he heard Bisuke's voice.

-_Great..._- he thought, his head spinning, -_if my life is gonna flash in front of my eyes, I'd rather have the bits WITHOUT the one who's getting me killed..._- He heard Bisuke's voice again, then laughter. He muzzily scanned the stands, and saw her up there, talking to Wing. -_Wonder what I'm remembering, then?_- he thought. He managed to focus a little, and heard not battle tactics, or Nen advice, like he expected, but Bisuke's mocking voice. "Are you going to lose to someone who's both slower and stupider than you?"

-#_&! NO!_- he snapped to himself mentally. He grabbed his focus and clamped down on it like a steel vise. "Grandpa always said I was as stubborn as a sack of rocks... may as well put it to use..." he mumbled to himself. The music that was trying to drag him back to normal speed became a minor irritation, then droned down into subsonic nothingness. The world froze, the Hook drifting towards him as though fighting through an ocean of peanutbutter. He stood, then frowned. _-I don't think I like this guy._- he thought. -_It's not just that he's trying to kill me... I think I resent him taking so much pleasure in it._-

In the stands, Bisuke breathed a sigh of relief. "He's got it." she said.

Wing looked at her oddly. "How can you tell? He's just been laying there for the last few seconds."

"I KNOW my students." Bisuke said flatly. Wing shrugged.

"Your _literally_ kill-or-cure methods to fix bad habits make me nervous, Sensei... I'm just glad you never had to use any of them on me."

Bisuke smiled sweetly. "You may have been a lousy student, Wing, but you were MY student. What possible bad habits could you have picked up?"

From behind her, Killua, with a grin audible in his voice, said "Violence, short temper, mean-spiritedness, money-hunger, cruelty to children, impatience..." and was cut off by Bisuke belting him straight up into the air.

Ryozha leapt, going from propped against the wall to flying kick without much of anything in the way of intervening motion. The Hook went flying back, then was intercepted by Ryozha, who kicked him high into the air, then leapt and drove him back into the ground.

The little murderer found himself ricocheting around the arena like a pinball, battered back in some random direction by Ryozha at every turn. Finally, Ryozha knocked him into the air again and blasted him into the ground with such force that he shattered the flagstones, then followed that with a torrent of friction flame, creating a short lived firestorm that scoured the flagstones clean and left the Hook as a charred, barely alive lump of meat.

The Hook twitched feebly once or twice, crawling towards where Ryozha landed, then collapsed as Ryozha jerked back in revulsion. -_He's STILL trying to get at me..!_- Ryozha thought in shock -_That's not willpower... it was just mindless **bloodlust** the whole time!_-

He slowed down just in time to hear the judge call "KO! Ryozha wins!" He raised one hand, then vanished, reappeared where his staff had landed, picked it up, then, focussing briefly, jogged (at a more normal pace) jauntily off into the locker room, whistling along with the chorus of Switchfoot's "Meant to Live".

In the dressing room, he collapsed, sweating and shaking as if he had a fever. A migraine spiked through his head as Gon and Killua came in to congratulate him. Bisuke was waiting for him in his room as Gon and Killua carried him in between them. He flopped bonelessly into bed, feeling consciousness slip away. The last thing he heard was Bisuke's voice saying "You did well, Ryozha. Now rest."

When he awoke, he could sense another presence in the room. Ryozha's eyes snapped open, and he sat up. "Weird..." he mumbled, "I feel completely rested."

He glanced around, and found that Bisuke was still there. "How long was I out?" he asked her.

"Not long," she told him, "thanks mostly to my Nen ability, you were only unconscious for about nine hours."

Ryozha winced. "Nine..? Oh well. Thanks for the Nen massage, I guess."

Bisuke arched an eyebrow. "If it wasn't for my Lovely Masseuse ability, you would probably have been out for another week or two."

"Oh."

Biskuke looked at him for a second as he hopped out of bed. "I want you to try something." she told him. "Switch between speed-modes as smoothly as you can."

Ryozha half-shrugged and slid between normal speed and full speed awareness, nearly dropping out of it from shock when he realized how smoothly and easily it was coming. After holding it perfectly for a good minute (nearly ten subjective hours) longer than his best time, he slid out of it, smoothly levelling off at normal speed.

He stared at Bisuke. "What did you **DO** to me while I was out?" he asked.

Bisuke ignored the question, studying him for a long moment, before saying "So... you're able to switch in and out with no problems, and to hold it? Good... this is even better than I'd hoped." she paused. "Of course, you're still pretty keyed up from the fight. It almost definitely won't be this easy when you try it under normal circumstances." She blinked. "What did I do to you? Nothing except put you in a situation where you were forced to break your dependence on that silly music trick."

She smiled at him, and he looked at her skeptically. -_Wonder what she's hiding..?_- he thought, then dismissed it as unimportant. He rummaged under his bed, then found his jointed staff from where it had gotten kicked. He flipped it through a couple of quick rotations, then set it down.

"Y'know," he said, half to himself, "I THOUGHT I noticed something odd in that last fight. My staff feels ridiculously light now."

Bisuke nodded. "That's what _proper_ training will do for you," she said, while thinking -_I wonder when he'll notice that I put the weights back on him once I finished with the massage?._-

"Hrm..." Ryozha mused. "Gonna have to put a call through to Ping Lee for a new staff, right after I ask Killua what those yo-yos of his are made of. He's always bragging about how super-hard and heavy they are."

He glanced up when he felt Bisuke's eyes on him, and wondered again what she was hiding. Their eyes met, and after a moment, she said "I want you to take it easy for today... if that fight had lasted even five seconds longer, you would have died from burning up all your Nen. You need to give your body time to heal."

"Fine with me," Ryozha said, "I've got a few things to do, so today's a good day to take care of them. Are Gon and Killua still around?"

She nodded. "They went to watch Zushi's fight- it should be ending soon. I think it was on the 141st floor..." she paused. "Something's been bothering me since your fight," she said, "how do you do your flame attacks? It doesn't look like Transformation, which is what it would normally be..." He brought his hands up, and she said quickly "Don't show me, just tell me. Remember what I said about conserving your Nen today."

Ryozha blinked and said "Oops... right. Uhm... well, basically, I just grab a bit of air and spin it around my hand at about fifteen hundred miles an hour. Friction heats it up superhot, and when I release it, it looks like I'm throwing fireballs or creating a sheet of flame. It's not nearly as powerful as it would be if I were using Transformation, but I use it mostly for distractions or making people think I'm weaker and of a different Nen type than I really am."

"Interesting..." was all she said.

He waved to her, and started to wander down the hall towards the elevator. She called him back briefly, saying "Before I forget- Gon wanted me to tell you that the Hook didn't die. He wasn't hurt nearly as badly as he looked."

Ryozha blinked, surprised. "I know." he said, "I wanted to make him feel pain, not kill him. I never attacked any of his vital points except at the end, to knock him out." He shrugged. "I hated him too much to kill him." He headed down the hall again, ignoring Bisuke's thoughtful look.

Bisuke stood outside his door and watched him go. -_I wonder if I should tell him about the other aspect of his 'final' Hatsu that Wing and I noticed on the videotape Wing's Nen-camera using friend made..._- She shuddered slightly. -_I have a hard time admitting it, even to myself, but this boy scares me sometimes. When he managed to lock into full-speed mode... The Hook didn't have a chance. Even if he'd been fast enough to block Ryozha's strikes or counterattack..._- the image of Ryozha, slowed to visibility by the Nen-powered videotape, racing and leaping around the ring to batter his horrible opponent senseless played across her mind's eye again.

At first, she'd thought that his control was simply still poor as his aura flickered and rippled, dancing like sheet lightning as it roared around his slim body. Then she started watching it in relation to the Hook's movements, and had gasped audibly, badly startling Wing.

-_I've never seen anything quite like it before, and I probably never will again._- she thought. -_His aura was reacting instinctively to the Hook's every move, his every shift of Aura. Combined with Ryozha's speed, it would be impossible for anyone who wasn't vastly more powerful than him to penetrate his defenses. Of course, it will probably be ten years before he realizes he can do it, and twenty before he's able to control it, but still..._-

She leaned against the wall and smiled faintly. -_If I were a greedy woman, she thought, I'd be thrilled to have such a large part in teaching what are likely to become the greatest Hunters of their generation. Ryozha doesn't exactly have the same incredible potential power levels as Gon and Killua, but he uses the Nen he DOES have well; he's creative, clever, has a strong will and thinks quickly. Of course, he's also lazy, smart-alecky, scatterbrained and as stubborn as a sack of rocks, but oh well._- She glared at a passing fighter who was giving her a funny look, making him twitch. Then her smile returned, broadening into a greedy grin. -_Who am I kidding... she thought to herself. I AM a greedy woman, and I'm thrilled to be teaching these three. Of course, I'll never tell THEM that... hee hee hee..._- Chuckling to herself, she ambled off down the corridor.

The next couple of weeks passed quickly, settling into an amiable routine. Bisuke's gruelling training continued apace- Gon could now perform his Rock-Paper-Scissors attacks consistently, although he still wasn't satisfied with the power of the Paper aspect, and Killua had figured out how to use physics to fire lightning bolts (he just jumped into the air while holding a powerful charge, and it took the shortest route to the ground, crisping the tallest thing around).

Ryozha's next fight was against another powerful Reinforcement user, who handed him his first loss, and in one hit, no less- Ryozha tried opening with a fast jump kick, only to have his ankle grabbed and then get smashed headfirst onto the flagstones of the arena floor (the doctor had said that he was lucky he had such a thick skull, much to Gon, Killua and Bisuke's amusement, or he would have ended up with a cracked head), but the fight after that, his anik alloy-cored jointed staff had arrived from Ping Lee, and he used his heavy, Nen-imbued weapon to dominate his luckless opponent, smashing him from a dozen angles at once. After the fight, a slightly shocked Ryozha vowed to work on his control- he had come uncomfortably close to killing his foe by accident.

Ryozha's next fight was sold out less than three hours after it was announced, at fifty thousand Jenis a ticket. The wildly popular Vladimir had made it to the 200th floor, and wanted a rematch. Ryozha scrambled out of bed well after noon on the day of the match- he, Gon and Killua had been up late the night before working out strategies to counter Vladimir's powerful shields and his terrible hammers.

Checking the time, he threw on his clothes and sprinted for the Celestial Tower's cafeteria. After a hasty brunch, he headed for the arena. He jogged in, ignoring the roar of the crowd. He had opted to leave his new staff behind for this fight, fairly certain it wouldn't be of much help. Vladimir appeared on the far side of the arena, his shield already up. The crowd roared louder. Ryozha, briefly distracted, glanced at the oddsmaker's board- apparently, the consensus of who would win was almost exactly split down the middle.

Vladimir and Ryozha squared off in the center of the arena. The referee brought his arm down, and Ryozha... stood there. Vladimir, his hammers already whirling out to intercept Ryozha, was thrown off balance. Ryozha sped in, bringing a Kou-assisted kick slamming into Vladimir's elbow. It connected solidly. Vladimir had misjudged again, protecting his body and head first with his shield. Unfortunately for Ryozha, Vladimir's Ken had provided enough protection that the elbow was unbroken.

-_Like we thought,_- Ryozha said to himself, -_his Ken and his shield are pretty much independent of one another. Bah. Oh well... not like it was unexpected._- He dodged the next hammer strike- apparently Vladimir had decided to forego his 'nest of hammers' assault in favour of the faster double hammer. Then Vladimir did something unexpected- when Ryozha hopped over his next hammer strike, intending to counterattack, Vladimir punched him solidly in the face with his free hand.

Ryozha flipped over backwards, rubbing his nose, but landed cleanly. "Clean hit! One point!" the judge called. Before he had even finished calling, Ryozha was moving. The flagstone where he had been standing shattered. -_Okay... that was a little unexpected. Apparently he can turn one hammer off while using the other._- He shifted into full speed awareness, spinning around Vladimir to study him from all angles. Then, with a wicked grin, he leapt forwards, doing a handspring and throwing a kinetic pulse into the ground at Vladimir's feet, causing the arena floor to ripple violently.

Vladimir was thrown off his feet and rolled helplessly for a second, like a hamster in a ball, before he flicked his shield off so he could stand up. Ryozha, who had been watching carefully, leapt in in an eyeblink, driving Vladimir's head into the ground with a powerful kick. Then he was thrown back as Vladimir's nest of hammers sprang into being, battering him helplessly around.

Ryozha scrambled to his feet, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. -_Ow..._- was his only coherent thought before he had to dodge again, hammers smashing in from all angles. Vladimir was on the move, lunging towards Ryozha as his hammers came to bear. Ryozha frowned grimly. -_Here's hoping your idea works, Gon, or this match is **over **for me, getting in this close to this guy..._- he thought, then grabbed at the tendril connecting one of the hammers to Vladimir. There was a fat spark of conflicting auras, then the hammer simply disappeared. Vladimir made a strange noise, then came in harder, smashing the arena floor to rubble as he tried to crush his nimbler tormentor.

Ryozha danced among the hammers, pinching them out of existence when he got the chance, hair-fine focus held carefully. Then Vladimir jumped at him, obviously preparing for a kick. Ryozha watched with interest as Vladimir's shield closed slowly over the hole that had been allowing him to walk.

-_Y'know, I bet I'd fit through that..._- he thought, before moving abruptly. The next thing Vladimir knew, Ryozha was inside his shield. Ryozha elbowed him solidly in the head, then released a pulse of kinetic power that slammed the shield bubble, with both of them inside it, to the ground. -_Wild... didn't feel a thing when this bubble hit the ground... no wonder this guy didn't have much trouble with me whaling on the shield..._- he thought fleetingly. Then he started to run, accelerating the bubble like a hamsterball... with the hamster on amphetamines.

Ryozha raced inside the bubble, dodging the flailing, screaming Vladimir as he sped around the arena. -_This is fun..._- he thought, -_apparently, Vladimir's bubble is connected to him- roll the bubble, and he rolls inside it._- Concentrating a bit, he spun the bubble until Vladimir was spinning lengthwise in it like some kind of strange axle. -_Okay, Vlad baby... let's see how you like this one..._- he thought.

Lengthening his stride, he blasted around the arena at impossible speeds, Vladimir spinning above him and turning a sickly shade of green. Finally, after a particularly tight banking corner (Ryozha had been running more on the walls than the floor for the last while), Vladimir regained enough control to use two of his hammers as a brake, ejecting a startled Ryozha through a hole in the shield bubble.

Ryozha made a recovery in mid-flight, to land smoothly and race back towards where Vladimir was retching weakly in the corner. He stood on the corner of the arena's raised pad, watching as Vladimir turned back towards him, shaky and weak, but with a dangerous light in his eyes.

Ryozha tensed, Gyo at the ready, waiting for the onslaught of hammers. Instead, Vladimir smashed a short arc through the floor, spraying Ryozha with chunks of rubble. Blinded, Ryozha backpedalled, his sixth sense straining for the slightest sense of motion as he frantically scrubbed at his eyes. A faint shift in air pressure warned him, and he darted sideways, catching a glancing blow that sent him sprawling.

He rolled sideways, nearly being pulped when Vladimir anticipated the move and sent his hammers smashing down. He flipped to his feet, blinking dust and grit from his blurry eyes, then frowned. Vladimir's hammers were coming from his hands, as usual, but there were far more than two. As Ryozha watched, five hammers arced off Vladimir's right hand, forming a wall of crushing death as they whistled across the arena, scouring it clean.

Ryozha was halfway to the ceiling when the hammers passed his position. Swallowing his momentum, he stopped abruptly, and Vladimir's next strike passed harmlessly overhead. He lunged back downwards, landing in the exact centre of the arena with a thunderous crash as he slammed a pulse of kinetic energy into it, making it heave like the deck of a storm-tossed ship.

Vladimir flipped upright in midair, but he was already too late. His hammers were forming a terrible wall in front of him, but Ryozha was _behind_, bringing a lightning-fast side kick to his neck, knocking him flying to land in a cloud of powdered concrete as his flailing hammers tore up the arena floor. Already unsteady, the kick to his nerve centre unbalanced Vladimir completely, and he lay, twitching feebly in a mound of rubble as his hammers continued to chew at the floor, until he mercifully passed out and his Hatsu faded.

Ryozha stood in the middle of the arena, the roar of the crowd gradually impinging on his consciousness. His only thought was -_Okay... that was a lot easier than last time..._- He jogged out, ignoring the ravings of the commentator. Gon and Killua were waiting for him in the dressing room, and he high-fived both of them. "Wow... thanks guys. Your plans worked." he told them. Gon pumped his fist in the air and yelled "Yeah!" and Killua just smiled.

One week (and two fights- one win by KO for Ryozha, and one win by points) later, word finally came from Jack Fettham. It consisted of one phrase and the name of a city in the Near East. The phrase was "If you are Hunters, you can find me."


	5. Chapter 5

Dawn poured its slow golden flood over the great city of Constantis, and Ryozha awoke to the wailing call of the Muezzins. He rolled over in bed and stared out across the sprawling, low-slung city. Constantis had few of the gleaming towers favoured by its more modern cousins- much of the city was still the same adobe and brick it had been a thousand years before.

Slender minarets soared above the city, and in the distance, the crowded, ancient palaces of the Old City could be seen across the Bosphorous Strait.

Ryozha sleepily watched the busy seagoing traffic as ships of every size and description plowed the shining Strait. The three boys were staying at a small hotel on the Asian side of the city called the "Harem", which Killua seemed to find very funny. However, it wasn't too expensive, and it was quite close to an Internet cafe, several restaurants, and one of the main transit terminals.

It had taken the three boys nearly a week to reach the city after hearing from Jack Fettham. They had said their goodbyes to Wing and Zushi, but Bisuke had said that she would probably see them again soon, so don't even bother with goodbye.

-_I still find that vaguely worrying..._- Ryozha thought muzzily. -_Too bad checking Fettham's mailbox didn't yield anything- the address was here in Constantis, all right, but it was just a Post-Office Box that the clerk said was weird- stuff went in, but it was always empty the next day, and no one came in or out._-

He shrugged and scrambled out of bed- thanks to Ryozha's internet-trawling skills, they had a meeting with one of the black market dealers who claimed to know Fettham in less than an hour- and pulled on a pair of shorts. It wasn't even completely light yet, and it was already quite warm.

-_Thank goodness it's Winter here..._- Ryozha thought, -_this place is an absolute OVEN when Summer comes. Always kind of liked this city, though._- He met Gon and Killua downstairs in their little hotel's dining room and breakfasted on fresh fruit, cereal, and thick, strong coffee (which only Killua drank).

At the rendezvous point, they found no-one other than a small boy, who took one look at them and scampered off, ducking down a maze of alleyways. They followed him easily, but lost him when he squirmed through a hole so small that none of them could fit through it.

A little stymied by this turn of events, they wandered one of the huge Bazaars for a couple of hours, simply drinking in the atmosphere and studying the merchandise from a hundred exotic lands. Ryozha eyed one of the hand-woven carpets hungrily, but decided against it. -_Pity..._- he thought, -_That rug is gorgeous, but the only place I can call 'home' right now is Grandfather's school, and I'm only there a few times a year..._-

When they returned to their hotel, they found another message from Wahid, the contact who claimed to know something about Fettham.

'My apologies,' the message read, 'I see that you are more familiar with the way things work here than I had assumed. Perhaps a meeting on neutral ground? The Ayasofya Museum, at 8 PM, is largely deserted. Please meet me there.' The three boys looked at one another. "Well, that's the day pretty much shot..." Ryozha complained.

"Why?" asked Gon. "Why don't we try seeing if anybody else knows about Mr. Fettham?"

"Or if anyone knows anything about this Wahid character." Killua added.

Ryozha blinked. "Uhm... right." he said. "Sorry... I guess I just get too much of a one-track mind sometimes." He hesitated, then said "Killua, are you sure it's a good idea to go digging on this Wahid guy? If he's as well connected as he seems to be, he'll get wind of it, and we might scare him off."

Killua cocked his head to one side, considering. "True," he said, "but on the other hand, if we DON'T dig around a bit on him, he may assume we're clueless and try to put one over on us."

"Why not just wait until tomorrow to see what we can find out on Mr. Wahid?" Gon interjected. "He won't tell us everything tonight, and after he's met with us once, we can probably find him again."

Ryozha and Killua both nodded. "Right." they said in unison. The three boys then consulted briefly, and decided to split up.

Gon took the largest area, on the North side of the Golden Horn, Killua took the smaller section on the Asian continent, and Ryozha took the densely-packed 'old city' in the Southwest.

--

Ryozha jogged over the massive Bosphorous Strait bridge. -_Heh... only bridge in the world that connects two continents._- he thought, chuckling at himself as the bit of 'guidebook knowledge' came floating back to him. He glanced at his watch, then lengthened his stride, cruising easily at a couple of hundred miles an hour. -_Better hurry- only have about ten hours to cover half the city and ask questions._-

As he sped along the bridge, he noticed the Ayasofya in the distance. Deciding to make a fast detour, he sped up into the supersonic, then hopped over the railing, swallowing his downward momentum just before he hit the water, and skimmed across the shining, polluted waters of the Strait.

Switching to "In", he blurred noiselessly up the riverside paths to the Ayasofya. A couple of quick superspeed circuits later, he thought he was familiar enough with the place to be comfortable later that night. Satisfied, he sped away, curving down the twisting streets into the heart of Constantis.

--

On the other side of the Bosphorous, Killua was headed deep into one of the seedier districts of Constantis, every sense alert, openly and obviously looking for something. Finally, a man in loose cotton robes approached him. "Does the child wish to buy something rare?" he said. Killua raised an eyebrow.

"That depends on what kind of rare thing we're talking about." he said noncommittally. "There are many things that are available to the... discerning... customer." Killua studied the man. He was obviously Arabic, so Killua thought back for a moment.

Ryozha had given him a few tips on dealing with the denizens of Constantis based on what he'd seen last time he was there. He had admitted up front that he hadn't been there very long, but he HAD gotten to know a few of the locals, so...

The first thing that came to mind was what Ryozha described as the Constantisites' love of haggling. -_Heh... wish Leorio were here._- Killua grinned to himself. His thoughts were interrupted by the strange man saying "Perhaps the young sir would like to see some... samples?" Killua raised an eyebrow. This guy's habit of throwing in significant pauses at apparently random intervals was getting on his nerves. He controlled himself and merely said. "Sure." he said, following the man into one of the dimly lit door arches.

--

In another part Constantis, Gon was hunting in his own way. He had visited the Constantis Land Registry office, and found that someone matching Jack Fettham's description had owned a house on the Asian side. Following his instincts, he had come to a largely residential district. Wild-child senses outflung, he studied his surroundings carefully. Unfortunately, here, as everywhere in Constantis, people seemed incapable of driving without determined, prolonged use of their horns. Otherwise, Gon might have caught the faint sound, on another block, of Paedric Shea cursing his cab driver, and recognized the voice.

--

Ryozha had found another branch of the land-registry office, but had left that lead for Gon, since it was in his section of the city. He had hit the library and a few government offices, and, after a brief bit of research, had found the local Hunter office.

Once there, he had asked the young woman at the desk about the old Nen Master who had passed through here years ago. The young woman- she had introduced herself, a little cryptically, merely as 'Oz'- scrubbed a hand through her short-cropped red (dyed?) hair, obviously thinking hard. Then she stood abruptly, making Ryozha jump, revealing a slim figure in loose-fitting sweats, and spun to march over to a set of dusty filing cabinets.

After a few minutes of digging through her records, Oz produced an old folio. In it was a photo of Fettham (-_Huh..._- Ryozha thought, -_I had no idea that Ping Lee was such an artist- that was an amazing likeness in that book of his_.-), along with a brief description and the notation -Headed for parts unknown in company with a local guide-, dated nearly fifty years ago.

He scratched his head. "Is there any record of who this 'local guide' was?" he asked Oz.

She shook her head. "Honestly, you're lucky you got that much. Then again, deaths-due-to-Hunting do tend to get noted down... So if this follows that trend, the 'local guide', whoever it was, probably came back alive. Whether or not they still are is anybody's guess, though- that was a long time ago."

Ryozha gave her one of his lopsided grins and said "Thanks. You tried, anyways."

Oz smiled back at him. "Come on back if you think of anything else you want to know, short stuff." she told him.

Ryozha made a disgusted face, then she winked at him. His eyes widened a little, but he only said "Sure." he said, his mouth quirking wryly. Then he grinned... and vanished.

Oz blinked. Then she murmured "Show-off. He'll probably be back- he looks a little too stubborn to let go of this one easily."

--

In a hall deep within the Aerie Stronghold, the Enforcer was on his knees. "You called, my lord?" he said obsequiously.

"Of course I did, Ethan, or you wouldn't be here." the slim, elegant older man seated on the fancifully carved chair in front of him said. "Do you have any progress to report on the matter of the Speed Hunter?"

The Enforcer nodded. "I've seen to it that he's taken care of... and also his partners." He hesitated. "If I may be so bold, my lord..."

The older man waved a hand negligently. "It's never stopped you before- go ahead, boy."

The Enforcer nodded, privately seething. "Why have you been sending other members of the order to attack him after you assigned me the case?"

The old man shrugged. Choosing his words carefully, he said "For all your... praiseworthy devotion to duty... you have a tendency towards... overzealousness. In the unlikely event that one of the others is able to capture him, we'll be able to find out what he knows."

The Enforcer nodded, then bowed deeper before getting up and leaving. The old man watched him go, frowning. -_I no longer trust him as I once did..._- he thought, -_but he is still our most powerful warrior, and it is doubtful any other would be able to capture as elusive a foe as this Speed Hunter._-

He sighed deeply, cradling his chin in his hands. -_The years have changed us all. Who would have thought that the idealistic boy that I took in all those years ago would grow into the bloodthirsty savage he now is?_- He shook his head. -_Perhaps it's time we came out of the shadows... much ill could come of this wealth, but much that is good as well._-He frowned, a look of fear crossing his face.-_No... too many would disagree, though- protecting the Treasure has become an end in itself, and many of my brethren would see the world cleansed by fire before releasing that 'sacred' duty._-

Tiredly, the old man got up and left the room as well.

Back in Constantis, Ryozha, Gon and Killua rendezvoused on the Yeni Galata Bridge, above the Golden Horn Strait, at around seven-ish. They headed across the bridge,and plopped down in the shadows of one of the many alleyways lining the street.

"So... how do we want to work this?" Ryozha said. "Not having a plan nearly caused a disaster last time... we need to be more careful."

"I'm not sure..." Killua said, "I don't know enough about this city, except a little about it's history."

Gon nodded. "It's hard to say until we know a little bit more about the people and the area."

"Some say that you cannot know the people of this land UNTIL you know their history." a new voice interjected from behind them. All three boys whirled.

"Oz!" Ryozha blurted. Oz grinned and stepped out of the shadows. She started to say something else, then stopped when she saw the looks on their faces.

She glanced around, then appeared to remember something. "Oh... right." she said, releasing her "In", seeming to snap into focus.

"I couldn't sense you at ALL!" Gon exclaimed, and Killua nodded.

Ryozha shook his head. "I couldn't sense you either, which is weird..."

Oz looked at him oddly. "You have a better En than your friends?"

Ryozha cocked his head in surprise. "What? No, nothing like that. It's just another aspect of my ability." Ryozha answered evasively.

Oz smiled faintly. "It's no surprise, I guess. It might come to a shock to you guys, but I'm a pro Hunter too. They call me the Ghost Huntress, 'she who is never seen'- the only reason I'm here is because my Master thought I should get some 'administrative experience', so he arranged for me to work at the Hunter office here in my hometown."

Ryozha raised an eyebrow, Gon nodded enthusiastically, and Killua radiated skepticism. Oz ignored them all and continued "I remembered what it was that was bothering me about the question you asked. You said something about meeting someone regarding Jack Fettham?"

Ryozha nodded, still unwilling to give anything away. Oz's eyes narrowed. "It wouldn't happen to be Wahid Faizal, would it?" she asked.

Gon, Killua and Ryozha all looked at her for a long moment. Then, carefully, Ryozha asked "How... did you know that, exactly?"

Oz's mouth twisted in an ugly frown. "Faizal has a bad reputation around here- I know for a fact that he's lured at least ten Rookie Hunters to their deaths, and a minimum of three Pro Hunters. He's a rare-artifacts specialist on the black market. And unfortunately, one of the rare artifacts he deals in is Hunter's Licenses. There was a note in Fettham's file that had fallen in behind the cabinet- Wahid Faizal intercepted the last two Hunters who came here looking for him. They haven't been seen since."

Upon hearing this news, Gon looked... not worried, exactly, but definitely unhappy. Killua's face had become a blank mask, and at his side (the one AWAY from Oz), his hand twisted into a lethal blade. Ryozha himself thought -_This doesn't sound good. We haven't found a lot else that could lead us to Fettham_...-, but it was Gon who spoke.

"So you think we should stay away from him?" he asked, sounding disappointed, of all things (although Ryozha couldn't say he was surprised...).

Oz shook her head. "Not exactly... Here's what I have in mind."

--

At precisely 8 PM, in the lobby Ayasofia Museum, Oz strode through the doors. Ignoring the dapper man in a neatly pressed suit and tie who came smilingly to greet her, she strode directly towards a pudgy, greasy-looking older man wearing the uniform of a security guard... or at least, what could be taken for the uniform of a security guard from a distance.

Gon watched the doors anxiously as they swung shut, obscuring his view. The lobby was, unfortunately, too open for any of them, even Killua, to conceal themselves and keep an eye on things.

Killua had stationed himself behind the Ayasofya, watching two of the rear entrances, and Ryozha was hidden on the rooftop of the adjoining Topkapi Palace, watching the whole area. Gon had far superior eyesight, but Ryozha had argued persuasively that he could get to anywhere he needed to be a lot faster.

Inside the Ayasofya, Oz strode up to her nemesis. "Faizal." she snapped by way of greeting. "You've tried for my license before, and you've failed. I've been hired on by the Hunters you were looking to ambush, after I warned them about you. They're still interested in dealing if you are, though. They want Fettham, and you look like the best lead out there now."

She glanced behind her, pinning one of Wahid's hapless lackeys with her glare. "Jakeem, knock it off. You can't sneak up on me. Faizal, get your goons out of my face and we can talk."

Wahid Faizal considered her for a moment, then shrugged. "Come." he said, "Let us have Chai, and we can, indeed, talk."

Shortly after that, Gon called the other two. "They're moving." he said.

Then he sprinted for the corner, around which there was a taxi waiting for them, idling at a nearby taxi stand. Diving into the taxi and followed closely by Killua, Gon gave the license number of Wahid's Mercedes to the cabdriver that Oz had arranged. A couple of blocks away, Ryozha leapt from the Topkapi Palace rooftop in a blur, following on foot.

The Mercedes arrived without incident at a large house in a prosperous section of Constantis, on the North side of the Strait. Ryozha watched from a perch high in a thick, leafy sycamore-fig tree on the far side of the street as Wahid, Oz and one of Wahid's bodyguards climbed out into the warm evening light, and the Mercedes headed off to somewhere behind the house.

For some bizarre reason, his player had kicked into the "Phantom of the Opera Suite" a while before, thunderous organ chords crashing around his ears as he trailed Wahid's car. A moment or two later, Gon and Killua slipped silently up the street, hugging the shadows of the walls bordering the estates that lined it.

Rhyozha watched with a mixture of admiration and envy -_I'm not sure I could ever learn to move like that..._- he thought to himself, -_If I hadn't known they were coming, and from what direction, I never would have seen or sensed them. As it is, I can barely keep track of them, even with both Nen **and** my seventh sense._-

He hopped out of the tree and jogged over to the other two. There, they waited for either Oz's signal, or some sign of trouble.

They got trouble first. Gunfire erupted from the room that Oz had 'marked' for them as Wahid's 'dealing room' on the digital floorplan she had constructed of Wahid's mansion. Gon, Killua and Ryozha glanced at each other, then they moved. Fast. They piled over the wall (or, in Gon's case, THROUGH the wall), Killua pausing briefly to slice the main phone line in half, then split up.

--

Halfway across the city, the reason for the Phantom of the Opera Suite moved steadily through the darkening streets. Shea followed the Iron Wolf, jittering impatiently. The Wolf stalked the streets, following the Speed Hunter's thin, stretched-out scent. They moved through the worst sections of Constantis, the denizens of the night avoiding them uneasily, predators avoiding a far greater predator.

--

Ryozha sprinted through the grounds, smashing guards, sensors and traps alike with gleeful abandon, moving far too fast to be seen. As he worked his way through the gardens and rolling lawns (-_Gyeesh... this guy must be STINKING rich to be able to afford this much water for grass in a climate like this_...-), he heard shouts and crashes from inside the house that told him Gon was at work.

He paused momentarily as one guard got pitched out a window to land in front of him, then winced as another followed the first headfirst through the WALL. -_Heh..._- he snickered to himself, -_Gon's version of 'downgrading security' is a little noisier than Oz expected, I think..._-

Inside, Gon was throwing guards around, leaving a trail of unconscious bodies. -_This is really weird..._- he thought, -_There no Nen users here. I kinda thought that a powerful black-market dealer like Mr. Faizal would have the strongest protection he could afford._- He worked a shrug into the whirlwind of combat and continued.

Killua slipped quietly through the halls on the other side of the mansion, a shadow among shadows. He smiled faintly at the thunderous sounds of chaos coming from where Gon was, thinking idly -_I couldn't **ask** for a better diversion._- Another burst of gunfire erupted from Wahid's 'dealing room', and Killua sped up slightly.

He reached the door, tensed, and then smashed through it, a faint, blurred shadow dropping Wahid's guards too fast to be seen clearly. He pitched the trigger happy idiot who was still firing at Oz out the window for emphasis, then followed, leaping lightly to the ground and fading into the shadow of the trees.

On the street, Killua and Ryozha met up. "Think we should go get Gon?" Ryozha asked. Killua shrugged. "I think he's almost done... I haven't heard anything break in almost a minute." There was a final, resounding BOOOOOOOOMMMM that echoed faintly out across the street, and a section of the mansion roof caved in, quickly followed by that entire wing of the building.

A moment or two later, Gon appeared through the hole he had made in the wall, looking a little sheepish. Killua slapped him upside the head. "Idiot! You were just supposed to take care of his guards, not knock his house down!"

Gon rubbed the back of his neck, embarassed, but said "It was an accident! I just... kind of threw one of them... through... a support beam..."

Ryozha gave a half-shrug. "Oh well." he said, "Not much we can do about it at this stage in the game." Killua looked unhappy for a second, the shrugged as well. They stood patiently for a few minutes (well, Gon and Killua were patient, Ryozha was... not), then Oz came out, leading a shell-shocked, miserable Wahid.

"He's ready to deal now." she told the three boys.

All five of them squeezed into the taxi that Oz's friend Ata was driving. Wahid Faizal gave a couple of monotone directions, and they headed for the outskirts of the city.

As they drove, Wahid seemed to come back to life again, at least a little. "I see the messengers that the Hunters used, but no Hunters." he said to Oz. "Do they still trust me so little, even after they have destroyed me?" Oz grinned evilly, every inch of her except her mouth saying 'I'm gonna ENJOY this one...'.

Aloud, she said drily "Faizal... these ARE the Hunters."

Wahid sat in stunned silence for a moment, expressions flickering across his face like summer lightning, before comprehension crashed down like... well, it was hard to describe. You know what it looks like when a chunk of a glacier falls into the sea, doing that terrible, slow-motion crashing thing? That's kind of how the expression hit.

-_He's got it.-_ Ryozha thought.

Wahid twisted around between Oz and the driver, a pleading look on his face. "Why?" he asked pleadingly, "Why do you wish to destroy Wahid, little ones?"

-_He don't got it._- Ryozha thought, his mouth twisting in disgust.

Oz elbowed Wahid sharply, making him twist back around abruptly, and said "I'd have more sympathy for you if you hadn't already been the death of thirteen Hunters to steal their licenses, Faizal." her tone sharpened, and her eyes became drills of polished agate. "Including my fiancé, Daival. That's the you didn't sell, did you know that? I was disappointed when the Mafia boss you bilked didn't have you killed on the spot."

She glanced into the backseat where Gon, Killua and Ryozha were sitting (or, in Ryozha's case, fidgeting). "Count yourself lucky I'm on comission to these three, scum, and that they need information that only you posess. Next time we meet... well, I'm sure that I can find **SOMEONE** willing to post a bounty on your worthless head."

After nearly two hours of driving in uncomfortable silence (and, in Ryozha's case, borderline terminal impatience), Wahid said "Turn here."

Obediently, the taxi turned down a narrow dirt pathway that led off the highway into the darkness of the countryside. Ryozha glanced at the other two. Gon caught his meaning and nodded, so Ryozha opened the door and hopped out of the moving car, racing ahead.

A few seconds later, he jumped back in. "No ambushes ahead that I could see or sense." he reported.

Killua finally spoke up. "What exactly are we going to see, Wahid?"

Wahid turned, considering him. Killua's gaze hardened. Oz opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Killua snapped "Don't waste my time. I know when you're lying."

Ryozha almost smiled at this, the brief flash of amusement overcoming the agony of impatience that the last two hours had been. -_You'd think that an experienced black marketeer would be a better liar... maybe 'cos we're kids? Eh... whatever._-

Wahid recovered himself, and said simply "My father was the local guide employed by the madman Fettham. My father has never spoken of what he saw on his journey with the madman, not once in the forty-five years since he returned. He has a small house here, on this country road, where he lives as he has for the last eighty-seven years, excepting that one journey with the madman." This much conversation seemed to exhaust Wahid, and he fell silent again.

They passed the rest of the two-hour journey in silence, pulling up in front of a small, unremarkable house set back a ways from the road.

As they approached, Wahid waved tiredly. "Here." he said.

Oz nodded to Ata, who turned the taxi into the narrow dirt driveway. The three boys piled out of the backseat, Killua vanishing into the shadows, Gon fading into the countryside, and Ryozha disappearing in a blur of speed to search the area, returning a split second later.

All three watched with great interest as Oz grabbed Wahid and... flowed... through the door without opening it, passing through the metal like it wasn't there. Wahid gibbered slightly, but remained remarkably unaffected otherwise.

-_Almost..._- Ryozha thought, -_almost like it's happened to him before..?_- He half-shrugged. -_Oh well... it's not important now, and it's pretty obvious that these two have a history._- He glanced at Gon and Killua, then he and Killua both nodded to Gon. They would remain hidden while Gon, Oz and Wahid dealt with Wahid's father.

Ryozha watched tensely from the shadows, all six senses tuned to the finest pitch. Wahid moved down the path with infuriating slowness, Gon and Oz close behind, both glowing gently with Ten, ready for anything... anything, that is, but what actually confronted them.

An old, old man shuffled out at Wahid's call, as skinny as his son was fat. "Wha..?" he started to demand petulantly, then he caught sight of Oz and Gon.

He flinched back violently, his face crumpling and taking on the aspect of an unhappy child. He spoke at length to Wahid... -_Bugger..._- Ryozha thought, -_he seemed to be able to speak English a second ago, but all of a sudden he's lapsed into Turka? Not good... no, wait... Oz almost certainly speaks Turka, since she said this is her hometown, and so far she's proven pretty trustworthy._-

The old man stopped speaking and refused to say anything more, watching Gon and Oz fearfully. Gon started to say something, but Oz waved him off.

She strode into the darkness, and whistled shrilly for Ryozha and Killua to come and follow her. Over her shoulder, she called "Ata will drive you back to town, Faizal. We have things to take care of."

Once they were well out of earshot of Wahid and his father, Oz motioned for a halt.

The three boys clustered around her in the darkness, and she sighed. "Faizal's father is as mad as he keeps claiming Fettham is. The old man is barely maintaining any kind of grip on reality- he called Faizal 'elder brother', and reacted like a small child frightened by bullies."

She hesitated. "It sounds crazy, but I think that the madness of Faizal's father was set off by our Nen. Something he saw, or something he experienced, in his journey with Fettham, must... must have made him sensitive to it somehow." She stopped for a long moment. "In a way, I'm almost glad. That... Faizal... lives daily with the madness of his father as punishment for what he's done. Perhaps now, Daival can rest a little easier."

She stopped again, and took a deep breath. "In any case, the important part of their conversation was, when Faizal told his father that we wished to know about Fettham, he said 'Send them to the Castle. I... burned... all I know into those... stones.'" She stopped. "Hmm... Sorry," she said, "neither of those words translates very well. The word for 'burned'... well, it means the same as in English, but it also has connotations of 'throwing away', as well as 'etching deeply'. And 'stones', well, it means big rocks, of course, but there's also overtones of boundaries, mountains, and terrible, terrible age."

Gon, Killua and Ryozha looked at her expectantly. She said nothing, apparently gripped by some vast inner struggle. Finally, she said "There is one place in this land that fits that description. The Fortress of the Forgotten Crusade." Something about the way she said it made Ryozha glance around uneasily, half-expecting an ominous crash of thunder. His mouth quirked, and he laughed silently at himself in the darkness.

The smile vanished immediately as Oz continued in the same deadly serious tones. "Few even know it exists. Among those who DO know, however, it holds a fearsome reputation. It's age is impossible to determine- rumour has it that even the great Hunter Ging Freecs was baffled by the enigma it presents."

At the mention of his father, Gon stirred, but kept quiet. "At least three different legends hold that the Fortress is older than the mountain it sits on, and that the land itself forced it out, trying to get it as far away as possible. Beasts of myth and legend roam it's hallways... although there are far fewer of the more vicious types since Ging's visit... and the ghosts of bygone years haunt it still. I will lead you there- it is not far from here, and we will see what the night holds, together."

Ryozha, Gon and Killua glanced at each other, then shrugged in unison. "Let's go!" Gon exclaimed, speaking for all three. Oz led them off at a fast pace, through the arid hills and down narrow, snakelike valleys. Ryozha roamed in wide circles, speeding around them as an outrider, all senses alert.

Ata lay slumped on the ground, a small pool of blood forming around a hole in his temple. Wahid stood over him, still-smoking gun in his unsteady hands, tears of bitterness and humiliation rolling down his fat cheeks. "I have kept few enough of my vows, my father." he said to the night air. "But this one WILL be kept. All those who call to mind your journey with the madman... the journey that stole your livelihood and your mind... will perish like the dog the madman was." He dried his eyes, his face becoming a cold mask. He dumped Ata's corpse the rest of the way out of his taxi and drove off.

As he reached the city limits, he pulled out his cellphone. He punched a rapid series of numbers with one hand, then another, longer sequence. "The Palace has fallen." he said into the cel. He waited for the proper counterphrase, then said "Open Lot 80369 and distribute it to all available men. Have them take the helicopters to the Fortress of the Forgotten Crusade and kill everything they find there."

He paused as the voice from the other end said something, frantically. "I do not care if we are left with no men in the city." he snapped. "My orders stand."

The journey passed uneventfully, and soon they found themselves standing on a hidden pathway above a vast ravine. Set into the stone of the mountain there was a massive gate, and, dimly in the darkness above them, parapets and towers could be seen. Oz motioned for a stop again, and said "Here's where it gets tricky. I can get two of you inside easily, but I then I would have to leave those two in there alone to get the third, which I'm reluctant to do because of the danger."

Killua and Gon both glared, and Ryozha sagged resignedly.

"Don't underestimate us!" Gon said. "We're Pro Hunters too!"

Oz looked at them sombrely. "Don't underestimate this place." was all she said.

Ryozha waved off her concern and said "Don't worry about it. I'm pretty sure I can get in without any trouble."

Oz gazed at him for a long moment, then said "Fine. Gon, Killua, give me your hands." Gon offered his hand immediately, and Killua gave his a second later, a little more hesitantly.

Ryozha gave them a half-grin, invisible in the darkness, then took off back down the path in a long streak of golden Nen. Oz led the other two towards the gate as the soft sound of Ryozha's sprinting got fainter, then started to grow again. As Oz, Gon and Killua passed smoothly through the ancient stone of the gate, their last sight of outside was Ryozha blurring up at speed, then making a ninety-degree turn and running straight up the wall.

On the other side of the gate, Ryozha dropped easily to the ground as the other three emerged from the stone of the gate.

Oz smiled tightly at them. "Now you know why I'm called the Ghost Huntress." was all she said. She started to move forwards, then looked seriously at them. "Stay close. I know a little about the layout of this place- I was in training when Ging brought his map out, and got a good look at it."

They passed through dusty hallways of rotting splendour, Oz's flashlight lighting the way. Ryozha let his seventh sense play about, testing every motion of the dead air. Struck by a sudden thought, he pulled his keychain out and played the mini-maglite he kept on it about, its small, intense beam flickering across ancient stone and dry-rotted wood.

Abruptly, a spectral face lunged through the stone, its loose mouth contorted in an inaudible, tortured wail. Ryozha jumped back, then stopped when the thing simply passed through him without effect. Killua started too, his hands crackling with electricity that appeared as suddenly as the ghost, but the ghost was already gone.

Suddenly, more wraiths appeared, swirling around and through the nervous party in a silent storm. After a few tense minutes, as they worked their way down the hallway, Ryozha turned irritatedly to Oz. "Can these things solidify, that you know of? Or generate illusions or anything? 'Cos they're not registering at all on my seventh sense- as far as Kinetic Energy goes, they may as well not be there."

Oz hesitated, thinking, then said "No, as far as I know, these can't affect the physical world at all, except by flying around in front of you, blocking your vision."

Ryozha gave a one-shouldered shrug. "In that case," he said, "they barely even qualify as a nuisance." He raised his voice. "Look, if you ghost-things can hear us, bugger off. I realize that we're probably the closest thing to entertainment you've had in the last few centuries, but we've got work to do."

The tortured spirits continued to swoop around them, and Ryozha made a resigned noise in the haunted darkness. "Oh well... it was worth a shot." he said, then stopped. Oz was staring at him in disbelief, Gon was looking a little confused, and Killua was laughing his head off.

Once Killua had recovered a little (he had nearly laughed himself sick), they continued on, ignoring their spectral honour guard. Abruptly, one of the doors they had passed shattered in a shower of rotten wood. Ryozha shifted to speed awareness, idly picking rotted wood out of his hair as he studied the hulking, hairy thing that shambled out of the darkness, attacking them with what seemed a sort of desperate futility.

He flicked his beam across it. -_Huh... thing looks sorta threadbare. Low budget ancient horror or something?_- he thought. Whatever it was, it didn't betray even the slightest trace of Nen, putting it into the 'barely even a threat' category, at least in his estimation. Ryozha half shrugged, stepped around the thing, and kicked it in Killua's general direction. A snap of electricity, the smell of ozone mingled with burning hair, and it was all over.

As they progressed down the hallway again, Oz said in a strained voice "You guys are certainly... casual... about all this."

Gon, Killua and Ryozha glanced at each other. Gon spoke first, saying "I don't know about Ryozha, but for Killua and me... well, Hisoka was a lot scarier than any of these things."

Killua nodded, barely visible in the glow of the flashlights. "Yeah," he added, "the Genei Ryodan too... heck, even the monsters on Greed Island were tougher than this."

Ryozha glanced at his partners with a new respect, but said simply "I dunno... I'm not gonna worry about the ghosts too much if they can't do anything to us. And after finding the Sea of Lost Dreams by accident while I was hunting something else, single-handedly sailing a tramp steamer through a tropical hurricane after the crew had all been laid low by some weird disease, breaking the hold that the Black Lotus Gang had on trade between Alispear and the Southern Peace, and being partially digested by a forty-foot monster for nearly a week, well... let's just say that budget rent-a-horrors don't do much for me anymore." He shuddered. "Especially the being digested part. Ye-uch, that was _disgusting_."

He glanced at Gon and Killua. "I have to say, though, I've never tried anything as dangerous as tangling with the Phantom Brigade, or as difficult as Greed Island- I had a chance to check Greed Island out briefly, but had a comission that I had to fulfill, so I couldn't stay. Seemed like a cool, if dangerous, place, even if I couldn't figure out what the heck I was supposed to be doing." Gon and Killua laughed, and after a moment, Oz joined in, a little uncertainly.

The rest of their search through the crumbling Fortress passed in amicable chatting, trading stories of memorable hunts they'd been on. Ryozha was fascinated by Gon and Killua's tales of their time in the Battle Tower, and shocked that Hisoka had actually gotten his license.

"I passed the year that he killed an Examiner- I guess it was the year before you did, Gon- and I have to say, he's one of the most dangerous beings, man, animal, or magical beast, that I've ever laid eyes on." he told them. Gon and Killua nodded, then Gon went on to tell of some of the times that he had encountered Hisoka.

When he was done, Ryozha shook his head disbelievingly. "Man... I can't believe you're still here, Gon. I can't think of many things I'd want LESS than that deranged clown taking an interest in me..." he stopped, turning his light on the wall beside him.

"Weird... I could have sworn I saw something there." He shifted to Gyo, irritably waving the ghosts off like a cloud of bugs. "You'd think these useless things would have gotten bored and gone away by now..." he muttered.

After a minute, he turned to the others. "Oz, where exactly are we in the fortress?" he asked.

She paused for a minute, then stuck her head through the wall. "Good," she said when she had pulled it back inside, "like I thought, we're just inside the outer curtain wall, facing out across the ravine."

"AHA!" yelled Gon just then, nearly making Oz jump out through the wall.

She sagged against the stone, fanning herself with her hand. "What?!" she snapped irritably.

"This way!" Gon called excitedly, sprinting down the hallway, Killua right behind him. Ryozha glanced back at Oz, then followed them at a fast clip. Oz glared after them in annoyance, then hurried to catch up, shoving the monster that popped out to attack out through the wall and letting it plummet into the ravine without even pausing.

She caught up with the three boys on the parapets.

"Here it is!" Gon sang out cheerfully.

One one of the cornices, the spidery trace of letters made from Nen-fire could be seen. Gon started to read them, then stopped. "Uhm... this doesn't make any sense..." he said hesitantly.

Killua laughed and pushed him aside. "Oz?" he said, motioning. Oz glanced around uneasily, and the three boys did as well. "Something's wrong." she said. "We can come back to this."

Abruptly, Ryozha let loose a burst of kinetic energy, knocking everyone sprawling. A split second later, the flat -CRACK- of a high-powered rifle could be heard.

"Scatter!" Oz snapped. Ryozha didn't hear her- he was already beating the sniper over the head with his own rifle.

This accomplished, he glanced around quickly, all senses extended. Making no attempt to disguise his presence, he appeared next to Killua, who was busy pitching another gunman over the parapet. The two conferred quickly, then he blitzed over to where Gon was beating up a couple more gunmen, evading their fire with a balletic ease that even Ryozha found himself slightly envious of.

He spoke briefly to Gon, idly stepping around the bullets that whizzed past. -_Honestly..._- he thought, -_subsonic ammo? I guess they don't know what I can do, but still... they may as well be using spitballs against me.-_

He moved off, and a split second later, he found Oz throwing still more gun-toting goons around. He waited patiently until she was finished with that group, then passed along the simple plan they had come up with. She, in turn, warned him that these were Wahid's men they were dealing with, and they had a fair bit of experience dealing with Nen-users.

"Be wary of traps." she warned him. He nodded gravely, and sprinted back to where Gon and Killua were dealing with their assailants to pass the warning on.

Safely back in Constantis, Wahid Faizal sat in his garden and stared sightlessly at the ruins of his home, patiently waiting for news of the Hunters' deaths. Between one heartbeat and the next, he was dangling off the ground, his neck in the grip of a shaggy-haired giant who had appeared from nowhere.

With his free hand, the Iron Wolf stuck a photo of Ryozha under Wahid's nose. "Where is he?" he said with his usual flat calm.

Wahid looked at the photo, then said "Dead, or soon to be." in strangled tones.

The Iron Wolf said nothing, simply squeezing a little tighter. Wahid, correctly interpreting this as a request for more information, choked out "My men have set up an ambush for him and his party at the Fortress of the Forgotten Crusade. He won't escape."

Without warning, another man was in the garden, his hand dripping with gore. Wahid stared at him in shock, then at his own eviscerated stomach.

He clutched feebly at his intestines as the newcomer hissed "You are right that he will not escape... but not because of your foolish ambush. The Speed Hunter is to be MY kill."

Leaving the crumpled form of Wahid's dead body laying where he'd dropped it, the Iron Wolf glanced down at his erstwhile partner as they moved off.

"Was that necessary?" he asked with a faint trace of distaste.

Shea looked at him. "Necessary?" he snickered. "No, but it WAS amusing. Besides, now he cannot bother us or report back to the boy, should he happen to return here."

The Iron Wolf didn't bother to reply, returning to his usual impassive demeanour, but the ever-present inner voice snapped (Scum or no, that is but one more death that you will be brought to account for.) He ignored it for a time, then, when he could ignore it no longer, shouted within the confines of his mind (The strong live, and the weak die. It is the law of the hunt!).

Unusually, the inner voice he refused to recognize as his answered him (Nature red in tooth and claw, huh?) it said sardonically. (Perhaps it is the law of the hunt, but it is not the law of men. And whether you like to admit it or not, I AM a man.) (It grows in strength. This is not to be tolerated. I am the Iron Wolf; to have a weakness is to be other than what I am.) Troubled, although giving no outward sign of it, he followed after Shea.

Ryozha moved through the crumbling fortress in a shrieking blur, blasting armed goons aside with his shockwave alone, not even bothering to look back as they bounced around. -_By not absorbing the sonic booms I generate at this speed, I don't even need to slow down for these idiots._- he thought. -_Still... gotta be careful. At least three of the ones that I've bounced off the walls have been carrying some really nasty weaponry- grenades, rocket launchers, some kind of weird machine gun... could've sworn one guy that I saw down the hallway even had a tripod-mounted minigun._- He extended his senses still further and kept running, leaving a trail of unconscious bodies behind him.

Killua swam in shadow, invisible death dancing amidst the hapless killers. -_Can't afford to let them herd us, he thought, and we have to be doubly careful in our movements, since they're guaranteed to have some traps set up- maybe even some that could kill us instantly. Since we got Nen, it's easy for us to underestimate those that don't have it, but..._- Not bothering to finish the thought, he continued on his way, eliminating gunman and monster alike.

Gon sprinted through the ancient castle, smashing everything that came against him, his keen senses carefully extended, seeking any hint of the traps that he was certain were there. -_This is really weird... I'm not finding anything. I wonder if Oz is having any more luck?_- he wondered.

Oz wasn't. Sliding invisibly through the walls, she jumped slightly every time some new horror roared out at her. -_I can't believe those kids are so blase about this. Then again, I've heard stories about the Dark Magician Hisoka... she hesitated in mid-thought, scanning her surroundings. I could swear this castle is shifting around us... like the very stone is trying to herd us somewhere. It seems impossible, but if even a tenth of the tales about the Fortress of the Forgotten Crusade are true, stranger things have certainly happened here. Best be on my guard._- With that thought, she too continued on.

Suddenly, all four Hunters found themselves staring at one another from different portals on the outskirts of the central keep's main courtyard. Warily, they approached one another.

"I just turned a corner somewhere in the outer wall!" Gon exclaimed.

"And I was in one of the towers in the Southwest Corner." Ryozha said, "But when I came out the door, it led here all of a sudden."

"Apparently the castle has decided it prefers the presence of Wahid's men to ours." Oz said, frowning worriedly.

"The... castle? Decided?" Killua muttered. "Come on, Oz, it's just an old building. It can't decide anything."

Oz looked at him. "No, it's just an ancient haunted ruin, infested with unimaginable ancient horrors. Such places often have a limited awareness of their own."

She turned to Ryozha, who was making small urgent noises in the back of his throat and tugging at her sleeve. Then her gaze followed his pointing finger and locked onto one of the castle turrets. Ryozha, Gon and Killua were already accelerating upwards in a powerful, terrified leap, as dozens of missiles turned the courtyard into an inferno.

From all corners of the courtyard, the miniguns, missiles, grenade launchers, heavy machineguns and rifles of Wahid's helicopters and men filled the night with fire, raking the courtyard, tearing the ancient stones apart, creating brief windows into Hell.

Thirty meters above the sudden man-made volcano, Ryozha, Gon, and Killua were riding the shockwave. As they neared the top of their arc, Gon and Killua twisted around so that their feet were pressed against each other. Ryozha, catching on to what they were doing, did likewise.

Then they shoved off each other, hard. Ryozha, thinking of it at the last second, sent a hard pulse of kinetic energy into Killua and Gon, launching them far faster than their leg muscles could ever have taken them. He accelerated himself as well, praying that their strength and his boost would be enough to carry them clear.

Oz rose smoothly from the stone floor of the castle turret, tears leaking from her eyes as she prepared to toss the murderers into the pit of molten fire the courtyard had become. Instead, she stopped in shock as she found Gon already there, standing over the unconscious bodies of the helicopter crew. "Buh..?" she managed.

"Oh, hi Oz!" Gon called out. "I'm glad you're okay. Killua and Ryozha are on the other turrets, taking out the guys there."

"Buh?" Oz said again. When Gon just looked at her oddly, she managed to find her voice.

"H... How did you..?" she managed to stammer.

Gon looked at her still more oddly. "We jumped." he said matter-of-factly, one eyebrow raised.

Oz blinked. "Of course." she said. There didn't seem to be much more to say, so she simply shrugged and slipped back through the stone of the floor, heading for one of the towers where the stacatto burst of gunfire could still be heard, thinking -_There seems to be even more to these little Hunters than I first thought._-

Ryozha skimmed along the battlements, dodging incoming fire from the goons who were slowly coming to realize that they hadn't gotten even one of their targets with their 'instant inferno' trick. -_Well... at least the chainguns are a little harder to dodge..._- he thought. -_Makes it a tiny bit more fun._-

For no special reason, he decided to stand right in front of one of the groups of thugs clustered around one of the minigun tripods. Stretching his speed awareness to the limit, he dodged bullets, redirected them and sucked kinetic power out of them, all while moving so fast (and then returning to the same spot) that he didn't seem to be moving at all. After about twenty seconds of this, Wahid's goons broke and ran, screaming. Ryozha laughed, and chased them down, bringing them all down in a split second.

On another portion of the wall, Killua was chasing his own screaming targets. -_Wimps._- he thought, -_You'd think none of them had ever seen someone slice their gun barrels in half with his bare hand before..._- He gave them an indifferent look, unlimbered his yo-yos and let fly.

Oz stalked the darkness like an angry spirit, materializing in front of Wahid's men without warning, striking them down before they had time to think, or even fully perceive that she was there. Occasionally, one of them would fly past to bounce off the walls like rag dolls as Gon worked his magic, knocking his foes flying in all directions.

When all of Wahid's men had been safely disposed of, the four Hunters rendezvoused back on the battlements where the old man had burned his knowledge into the stones. Bit by bit, Oz translated the fifty-year-old story. Finally, she read: "About the madman I will say no more, save this; if you wish to join him, jump from this point and use the same abominable power he wielded." Oz stopped. "That's it." she said, "The writing ends with that line."

Gon, Killua and Ryozha glanced at one another. Then they jumped off the wall in unison, flaring bright with Nen. A violent swirl of colour, the sense of time and space being rent asunder, and they were gone. Oz stared after them. Eventually, she sat down, still focussed on the same point in space.

Sunrise found Oz still sitting in the same spot, staring at the vacant point in space, patiently waiting for the three boys to reappear. Then a hand grabbed her, pinching a nerve and paralyzing her. She tried to ghost free, but found that the same nerve hold had rendered her into a Zetsu state as well.

From behind her, a voice said "You may consider this... payback... for the Empress Tita affair, 'Ghost Huntress'." Unable even to scream, she was pushed over the parapet, to plummet to her death in the ravine.

Back on the wall, Paedric Shea dusted off his hands. "A stroke of luck to find that wench here," he commented, "I've been wanting to do her in for the last three years."

The Iron Wolf said nothing, focussed on shutting out the voice at the back of his mind. He stirred slightly, his attention returning to Shea when the little man swore viciously. "I hadn't counted on this..." he said, "The instructions are in Turka, which I cannot read. We will have to return to the city and find a Nen-user who can read this gibberish." He paused. "Actually..." he stopped, digging around in his pocket. Shea produced a grubby notepad and a stub of pencil and began to labouriously transcribe the Nen-letters in the stone.

The Wolf sniffed around briefly, then commented "The scent is fresh- not more than a few hours old, but it ends here... almost as if they had jumped off."

"The secret of their disappearance will be revealed by the writing on the stone." Shea said confidently. He continued to copy down the Nen-letters.

--

Somewhere else...

An old man watched as a hawk circled in the sky above him. It wheeled lazily for a while, then, when the old man whistled, descended sharply, growing larger, and larger, and larger, until it was painfully obvious that while it might be hawk-shaped, it was the size of a private jet.

It landed next to him, and he stroked the sleek head, studying it intently with Gyo. After a moment, he withdrew his hand, and the titanic hawk lunged back into the air, bending trees a hundred meters away with the rush of wind it's wingbeats generated.

In the undergrowth, out of sight through the trees, something massive stirred at the rush of wind, then settled again. The old man bent to examine a small, fragile-looking plant with delicate blossoms that was growing through a slab of solid granite, cracking the tough stone.

He poked it briefly, then pulled out a knife and brought it around in a blurred arc, slicing at the flower. Half the knifeblade spiralled off into the distance, to stick into a tree with a -thunk-. He studied the untouched flower with a small smile, then looked up. A change in the wind warned him of something approaching.

Gon, Killua and Ryozha were spat out of the howling vortex and landed in a heap. As they disentangled themselves and scrambled to their feet, they found themselves in broad daylight, in a hidden valley, filled with strange plants and furtive movements in the undergrowth. Ryozha started to move off to do his usual superspeed tour of the area, but Gon grabbed his arm and shook his head seriously.

"Something's not right here." he said, looking around and testing the air. Ryozha settled back, uneasily eyeing their surroundings.

They had landed in a small clearing, surrounded by an odd, semi-tropical forest. Gon was circling warily. Killua had his hands in his pockets and was outwardly relaxed, but Ryozha knew him well enough by now not to be fooled by that. Ryozha fished his staff out of his pack and held steady... at least, steadier than he felt... scanning the area with his own unique senses.

Their vigil was repaid by the sudden sound of crashing in the trees.

"South!" Killua snapped, although both Gon and Ryozha had already turned in that direction.

A split second later, the three scattered as something huge, horned and bristly slammed out of the undergrowth, charging them. Ryozha glanced around, his reflexive shift into speed awareness giving everything a surreal, slow-motion appearance. To his right and above, Gon was already trying to communicate with the thing before he'd even landed. Further to his right, Killua had his yo-yos out and was charging for an electrical attack.

Ryozha frowned briefly, then landed, ran around behind the thing (even seeing it clearly, he had no idea what it was- it looked like the work of a brilliant, extremely bored taxidermist sprung to life) and swatted it on what he hoped was the rump with his staff, causing it to whirl (very, very slowly, at least from his perspective) and chase him. He raced back and forth, taunting the beast, hoping that Gon would be able to get through.

Dropping from speed awareness, he glanced over at Gon, who he was surprised to see had tears in his eyes. "This poor... thing... is totally insane." Gon said, flopping down and sitting back. He shook his head. "I don't know what happened to it, but its mind is broken. I can't believe it's still alive."

Ryozha watched the thing a little more closely, the tics and jerky movements he had previously dismissed as being from rage suddenly taking on a new significance. He shook his head grimly.

"I don't think we have much choice, then." he said. "It's one of the laws of the Hunters- no beast that tries to kill a human may live." Killua nodded, and even Gon unhappily agreed.

The three spread out around it as it spun madly in place, trying to keep them all under it's small, piggy eyes. Then, together, they struck, bringing the enormous animal down with a single, united strike.

The beast crashed to a halt in a cloud of dust, sliding to a halt at the base of a tree. Then, by common, unspoken consent, they started to bury it. As they were doing so, an old man emerged from the trees. He watched them in silence for a while. Once the creature was buried, and Gon had put a crude grave marker on it, he spoke.

"Tell me, boys... why did you kill that animal?"

The three glanced at one another, then Gon answered. "It was crazy... suffering and mad." The old man blinked, apparently a bit taken aback by this bold statement.

"And you assumed this because it attacked you?" he asked.

Gon looked shocked. "Of course not!" he said. "I could communicate with her, at least a little bit. She told me herself."

If the old man had looked taken aback before, he looked downright stunned now. He shook his head slowly. "I never... I never knew..." he murmured.

He sagged, suddenly seeming much older. He came to himself, apparently remembering that he was not alone. He looked at them closely. "Are you boys the ones that young Lee wrote me about?"

Ryozha cocked his head to one side. "Yes, sir." he said, "Are you Mr. Fettham?"

The old man nodded. "Follow me." he said.

He led them a short way through the trees (-_I could swear..._- Ryozha thought, -_No, it can't be... but... are the trees and bushes actually moving out of his way_..?-) to another, much larger clearing. In the center of the clearing sat a quartet of enormous birds, three eagles the size of private passenger jets and a smaller bird- a falcon of some kind- that was only the size of a light plane.

Fettham motioned to the Eagles, naming them in turn. "These are Agrippa, Aguila and Agnes." he said, "And this one is my personal mount, the Pilgrim." He glanced at Ryozha, who was snickering.

"What?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, his eyes twinkling faintly. "Let's see you think up a girl's 'Ag-something' name." Ryozha laughed a little more, then calmed down a bit.

Gon interrupted, his eyes shining. "You said Pilgrim was your mount." he said, "Does that mean we get to ride Agrippa, Aguila and Agnes?"

Fettham smiled at his enthusiasm, and nodded. "Yup." he said, "We need to, to reach my house."

After a brief explanation of how he'd trained the birds, Fettham helped each boy onto an eagle. "I know you can get up just fine by yourself," he said, "but it's better if a familiar voice is talking to them as you get on- I don't get a lot of visitors out this way."

Ryozha leaned forward to stroke the Aguila's soft neck-feathers. -_Glad I didn't get the one with the silly name..._- he thought, then laughed at himself. -_Can't believe I actually care about that..._- he thought. The giant eagle turned his head to regard Ryozha with the clear gaze of a raptor, then shrugged powerful wing muscles, bursting into the sky with the sound of distant thunder.

On either side of Ryozha, Gon and Killua rose aboard Agnes and Agrippa, Gon a little more confidently than Killua. Ryozha glanced in Gon's direction and grinned. -_Bet he's already gotten that bird to tell him her life's story... Y'know, I just thought of something. Mr. Fettham said that these birds could understand some English..._-

"Hey Aguila." Ryozha called to his eagle. The giant bird rolled one eye back towards him inquiringly. "If I were to jump off, could you catch me without injuring yourself?" Agrippa gave a minor squawk and a distinct nod, giving off a feeling of... amusement?... at the same time. "Would you mind if I did it just for fun?" he asked. The bird didn't give any audible response this time, but there was a definite, almost human, shrug worked into his powerful wingbeats. "Rock on!" Ryozha exclaimed.

Standing up on Aguila's back, he let himself tumble off backwards, doing a lazy backflip, twisting around and swan-diving towards the ground with a shout of "YEEEEEEHAAA!" The wind roared past him as he soared downwards, then Aguila passed him with a rush of wings. Smoothly inserting himself under Ryozha, Aguila pulled out of his dive and rose to join the others again.

Fettham was circling on Pilgrim's back when Ryozha got back to his altitude, looking torn between concern and anger. Pilgrim squawked indignantly, and Fettham grunted "Yeah... kids." in agreement.

Gon looked entranced, and Killua looked intrigued. "Can we do that too, Mr. Fettham?" Gon called out.

Fettham looked grouchy, but snapped. "Bah. Whatever."

Gon called something in a shrill, eagle-ish scream, and Agnes screamed back, apparently matching his enthusiasm. He leapt upwards, clear of Agnes' back, flipping, tumbling and rolling as he plummetted, before straightening into a clean dive, rocketing towards the earth. Killua had jumped off at the same time, simply sliding off Agrippa's back, and the two raced each other towards the ground. Agnes and Agrippa caught them, bearing them back upwards, then, at the boys' urging soared higher still.

Ryozha spurred Aguila up to join them, then thought of something. He checked his kinetic-Nen reserves, and grinned wickedly. He leaned forward and whispered something to Aguila. The eagle gave a screech that sounded suspiciously like a snicker, and surged above the other two.

Gon and Killua didn't notice as they dove off again... and then Ryozha passed them like a missile, arrowing towards the ground in a streak of Nen-fire. Then he gradually redirected his momentum, swooping upwards and rocketing by them again. He looped and spun around them as they fell, then swung clear as the three eagles came in to catch them again.

Fettham watched them for a while, circling lazily atop Pilgrim's back, before eventually losing patience. "All right, brats." he snapped. "Did you have a reason for invading my home, or did you just come here to abuse my birds?" He ignored the indignant squawk from all three eagles at the (somewhat outrageous) suggestion that they were being abused. "Well?" he demanded.

Ryozha looked at him oddly. -_Mood swing, much?_- he thought. He shrugged and dug the ring out of his pocket. Flipping it to Fettham who snagged it easily, he said "Here. Ping Lee said you're probably the only one alive who can figure this thing out."

Fettham turned it over in his hands a few times, looking skeptical, then pushed a fine trickle of Nen through it. The resulting flare of Nen from the ring nearly made him jump off Pilgrim's back in startlement. He tried it again, looking increasingly interested.

Finally, he said "For a challenge such as this, I can forgive much."

-_Forgive..?_- Ryozha thought, a little nonplussed.

"You may as well keep playing up here- this is going to take a while. Aguila and the others know their way home- you are welcome to stay with me as long as it takes me to figure this out."

With those words, Fettham urged Pilgrim forwards, and the huge falcon arrowed downwards outstripping the eagles the way Ryozha normally outran Gon and Killua. The three boys and three eagles looked at each other, then, with a unified shrug, continued with their skydiving, riding the eagles like feathered rollercoasters and then hurling themselves off at the top of a particularly spectacular loop.

In the catacombs below Constantis, a Knight-Guardian dropped his sword and clutched at his throat, turning a strange colour before collapsing with a gurgling noise.

"One more pile of bones amongst a thousand." Shea commented, brushing his hands together and turning away. The Iron Wolf said nothing, as was usual. "I cannot allow these fools to interfere with my hunt for the Speed Hunter, even if I have to kill the lot of them." Shea continued. He shrugged, giggling slightly. "This puts us further behind him, once again... but I cannot..." he broke off, snickering and snorting madly. "I cannot..." he continued once the spasm of deranged laughter had broken off, "allow interference on MY **HUNTS**!" he said, his voice rising to a scream.

The Iron Wolf watched him warily. (He's been growing steadily more unstable.) his inner voice commented, (Ever since he found that handful of men with strange weapons here and killed them all with a touch, he's been growing crazier with every one that he tracks down and murders.) (For once, we are in agreement. The trail goes cold as he pursues this mindless vendetta- it has been more than three days already.) the Wolf told the inner voice. (Not exactly what I meant...) his inner voice said, (but I'll take what I can get.)

Back in the Fettham's hidden valley, Ryozha was growing restless. -_Riding the eagles is still a blast,_- he thought, -_but I can't shake the feeling that we're being closed in on... we've been here for days. Thank goodness Gon can cook, because I sure can't, and Fettham is cloistered in his 'lab'- haven't even seen him since supper of the first day we were here._- He sighed. -_I know there's nothing to be gained by chasing off all over creation while our best lead is here, but..._-

He wandered out of the house. Gon and Killua were off someplace, chasing one of the fantastical Nen-creatures that Fettham had built, but he still wasn't alone. Aguila swooped down out of the sky and landed next to him, hopping companionably along beside him when he made no move to get on.

He wandered for a bit, occasionally stroking the giant eagle's soft neck feathers. He fetched up alongside one of the streams that ran through the valley, glowing and sparking with Nen. -_I'll admit to being impressed by THAT..._- Ryozha thought, -_Wonder how long it took him to figure out how to permanently imbue moving water with Nen?_-

He paused. -_Y'know, that gives me an idea... there's a new trick I've been wanting to try out, especially since we're so far away from traffic and trainyards, and the usual stuff I use to recharge my kinetic Nen._-

As Aguila looked on with interest, Ryozha studied the stream for a second, then knelt down and stuck his hand in it. He reached out with his aura, and the fast-tumbling water began to slow, taking on an odd, reddish cast from his Nen. Then there was a massive flare of power, and when his ears stopped ringing, Ryozha was laying on his back a metre and a half from the stream.

-_Note to self..._- he thought, as Aguila peered down at him curiously, -_don't try that in a stream that's been heavily imbued with Nen._- He glanced down at himself to check his kinetic power reserves. -_Works better than I'd expected, though..._- He glanced around. -_Now I kinda wish that I'd gone with Gon and Killua, instead of staying behind in hopes of getting some answers out of Mr. Fettham. I still feel a bit of the odd-one-out with them, though... even though they've pretty obviously accepted me._-

He half-shrugged. _No point in sitting around feeling sorry for myself._- he thought. He swarmed up a tree in a heartbeat, scanning the valley. Then he hopped out, swallowing his own momentum to land on Aguila's back as gently as a feather falling.

"C'mon, Big Bird- let's hit the sky and see if we can find the others." Aguila squawked agreement and shot into the sky with a thunder of wings.

Soaring high above the valley, Ryozha scanned it, but was distracted by a horrific crashing to the East. Steering Aguila that way, he swooped in, then froze in terror, nearly falling off Aguila's back. Roaring amidst the trees like a million flames from a private Hell, Paedric Shea's awesome, maddened aura spread like a blight, sickening all it touched.

"Oh, bugger." Ryozha breathed.

Shea stood in the midst of a spreadening zone of blackness, plant and animal alike dying as his aura caressed them like a diseased lover. He flickered in and out of view like a badly tuned television signal, his madness so great that he couldn't maintain focus. He laughed as his Pestilence Touch swallowed the life of all it brushed against.

On the ridge above, separated from Shea by nearly a kilometer of space and rock, the Iron Wolf watched Shea, both voices in his mind stilled by the horror of what he was witnessing, his knuckles white around the powerful rifle he had brought.

In the sky above, Ryozha unfroze. "Get the others." he snapped to Aguila. "As fast as you can move." With that command, he leapt off of Aguila's back.

He let himself freefall for a split second, orienting himself. He was dimly aware of Aguila wheeling off in a flurry of powerful wingbeats, then time slowed to a crawl. He studied his target for a second, tiny in the distance. -_Okay... from what I can see, there's about 1/3rd of a second delay before his aura takes effect... and it looks like it's feeding off what it's killing. If I can get him clear of the forest and back into the rocky area, it might slow him down a little. I can only hope that Gon, Killua or Fettham will be able to do something to help..._-

With the quiet determination of one who thinks he's about to die, Ryozha charged his kinetic Nen, building a massive charge of kinetic power held barely in check by his Nen. -_I hate doing this- I always wind up with a headache for days afterward- but it's my best chance to take him down. Okay... here we go..._- He released the tension, suddenly hurtling forward like a bullet from a gun.

Arrowing downward at a steep angle, Ryozha homed in on his maniacal adversary like a supersonic missile. As he approached, he shouted "KOU!", bringing his aura around his fist and swinging it forward.

The hit blasted Shea like a cannonshell as Ryozha backed it up with an explosive burst of kinetic energy, dumping every bit of momentum he had into Shea's head and shoving most of his kinetic reserves in after it.

Shea tumbled limply to a halt in a broken pile of rubble. Then he giggled. Laughing insanely, he scrambled out of the half-mile trench he'd dug with his head and turned. Then, moving faster than Ryozha would have thought possible, he charged, his diseased aura reaching hungrily towards the boy Hunter.

Ryozha scrambled backwards, horrified. Then, from behind Shea, he heard the shout of "First comes Rock... Jan... Ken... Pon... ROCK!" and Shea suddenly sped up to go flying past overhead. Gon and Killua raced up.

"Are you okay, Ryozha?" Gon called.

"Yes. Don't let him touch you!" he yelled back.

For the next few minutes, Gon, Killua and Ryozha danced around Shea like piquadores around a fighting bull, firing off stinging attacks, diverting his attention each time he tried to go after one or the other of them. Berlioz's "March to the Scaffold" was thundering from Ryozha's headphones, and he was growing desperate.

"This isn't working!" he called to the other two. "The only reason we've lasted this long is because he's too crazy to realize we're baiting him!"

No sooner had he said this than he realized he'd made a mistake- he had taken his attention off of Shea long enough to call the others. A stinging blow to the side of his head sent him sprawling, and crazed little man was on top of him.

Time slowed for Ryozha. Shea's hand glittered with evil-looking Nen, descending with painful slowness. -_This is it..._- Ryozha thought, -_I'm going to die._-

On the ridge above, the Wolf had collapsed, clutching his head, the rifle fallen by his side, forgotten. In his mind, the voice he would not... COULD not acknowledge as his was raging (Remember... you must remember... REMEMBER!!)

As Shea brought his hand down, Ryozha's attention was diverted by an angry scream, shrill even in the surreal, slowed-down world of speed awareness. Then Aguila shot past him, slamming into Shea like... well, like an eagle the size of a bus. Aguila carried the little man off, tearing at him with beak and talon, joined by Agrippa and Agnes.

The bloodied Shea fought back, his hands curled into claws as he ripped and tore at Aguila, his aura curling around the great eagles like smoke the colour of madness. His Nen overwhelmed the eagles' weaker aura, and Aguila screamed, his great heart bursting, as feathers crisped and blackened. A split second later, Agrippa and Agnes screamed also, then abruptly went silent.

Aguila's remains crashed through the treetops and hit the ground on top of Shea, Agrippa and Agnes' broken forms landing on either side, mouldering as though fresh-dug from a grave of months. Shea burst from Aguila's carcass, giggling and gibbering. Ryozha, who had been frozen in horror, exploded with anger.

He rocketed forwards, slapping into the little madman like a runaway train, and the lithe assasin wailed as he was buffeted by shockwaves and burned by friction fire, his elusive opponent everywhere and nowhere. His wailing peaked, becoming a scream, and his aura flailed in all directions like a crazed octopus. Ryozha backed off, fear replacing anger, as Shea's aura grew again, consuming still more of the valley.

-_That's it._- he thought. -_We're doomed. Even with my speed, I can't get close to him now, and Aguila... he choked a little... Aguila isn't around to carry me aloft any more to repeat the trick I pulled the first time._- Then he set his mouth in a stubborn line. -_No! I'm **NOT** giving up._- He sprinted back to where Gon and Killua were watching, openmouthed.

When he arrived, Gon turned to him, looking speculative. "How much kinetic power do you have left, Ryozha?" he asked.

"See for yourself, Gon... not much." Ryozha answered glumly.

"Hmm..." Gon mused, then half-turned to Killua. "Do you think you could recharge fast the way you did when we were being held prisoner in that bunker?"

Ryozha blinked. "You mean by Killua beating on me? Should be able to charge up some that way, yeah... you have a plan?"

Gon nodded. "Start charging." he said, "I need to get something else ready."

After a few minutes of Killua's full-out hits, Ryozha's red kinetic-Nen aura was back up at a healthier level, his regular golden aura once again relegated to lightning flashes spiking through the dominant scarlet aura. Gon returned a moment or two later, holding a huge boulder.

Ryozha gave a strained grin. "I like the way you think, Gon."

Gon shrugged. "It's not very different from what Killua and I did when we were training with Bisuke on Greed Island- remember that scissors guy, Killua?" Killua nodded, then stood back. Gon heaved the rock back, ready to throw, and Ryozha hopped aboard, ready to pump the kinetic power he had absorbed from Killua's punches into the rock and accelerate it to (hopefully) devastating speeds.

Before Gon could let fly, however, a new shape loomed over the valley. Rising from the trees, a giant figure could be dimly seen. The Spirit of the Valley loomed forwards, feet made from pure Nen brushing the trees aside like tall grass as it reached for the little assasin.

Fettham appeared silently next to the boys. "I made that as the final defense for my valley." he said sombrely. "I had hoped that I would never see the Spirit of the Valley awakened, but..." All four watched in silence as the Spirit of the Valley gathered Shea up, Nen-fingers the size of tree trunks closing around him.

The Spirit hoisted Shea high in the air, and the onlookers froze in collective horror as the green Nen of the Spirit became discoloured where it touched Shea. The stain of Shea's mad aura spread down the Spirit of the Valley's arm, and the giant groaned in a voice like cracking trees.

As the stain spread across the Spirit's chest, the flat -CRACK- of a high-powered rifle could be heard, and Shea screamed as his shoulder was shattered by a high-velocity bullet. The madman's aura receded a little as the Spirit's green reasserted it's dominance, then a second -CRACK- rang out, and Shea screamed again as blood blossomed from his knee. His aura collapsed inwards with a rush, burning too intensely to look at for a split second before vanishing entirely.

The Iron Wolf climbed down tiredly from the rocky ledge toward the trio of Hunters and the old man who owned the valley. He raised an eyebrow at Gon, who was still frozen in the throwing position, holding the three metre boulder. Ryozha hopped down off it, and the Iron Wolf walked up to him.

He stuck out his hand, and said "Ryozha Tenryu? I'm special agent Davis Thompson, known lately as the 'Iron Wolf'. I'm sorry you got tangled up in that mess."

Ryozha took his hand tenatively and shook it. "What mess?" he wanted to know.

The Iron Wolf grimaced. "I was assigned three years ago to go deep undercover and bring in Paedric Shea, or bring him down, if necessary. He's wanted in the Republic of Allixen for dozens of crimes, to the point that the Hunter Commitee told us he was all ours if we wanted him. Oh- Paedric Shea was the little loon that you were fighting and who's currently... hanging... in midair... Never mind, _not_ even gonna ask."

Gon, Killua and Ryozha looked at the Iron Wolf for a long moment, before Killua finally asked "So if you were assigned to take him down three years ago, why didn't you do it... well, three years ago?" Davis 'Iron Wolf' Thompson sighed deeply and sat down against the rock that Gon had set down a moment before.

"It's a long story," he said, "but the short form is, I volunteered to test a new torture-proofing process- what it was SUPPOSED to do was to cause me to revert to the personality of my alias- whatever it was at the time- in the face of torture, locking all knowledge of who I REALLY was away where even I couldn't get at it. Instead, the 'Iron Wolf' personality took over as soon as I laid eyes on Shea for the first time, and I've been unable to break loose until now."

"Now? What's so special about now?" Killua asked skeptically.

"I think I can guess..." Ryozha said slowly. "The vortex, right?"

"Vortex?" Gon asked.

"The thing that brought us here, Gon." Ryozha said patiently.

"Oh, right." Gon said. "I'd bet that the vortex is what drove Wahid's father crazy, and if it was, then it's not too unlikely that it would mess up mental conditioning too." Ryozha continued.

Thompson shrugged. "That might be it- I do know that my Iron Wolf personality was a lot weaker after we popped out of that hole in the air. I guess I got shielded from the worst of it because my real personality was in the back seat, so to speak."

Fettham looked troubled. "It would seem that unless you have Nen to protect you, my teleportation holes have some unpleasant side effects, although some good came of it this time. Something I'll have to work on, I guess."

Later, when Shea had been safely ensconced in one of Fettham's laboratory outbuildings and Aguila, Agrippa and Agnes buried, the three boys conferred with Fettham and the former Iron Wolf. "I actually would have come to get you whether the Spirit of the Valley had awoken or not," Fettham told the boys. "since I had just figured out the ring less than twenty minutes before that little madman attacked."

"Speaking of Mr. Shea... what are you going to do with him, Mr. Fettham?" Gon wanted to know. 'Iron Wolf' Thompson glanced up sharply at the question.

"Well..." Fettham started, "if it's all right with the Iron Wolf here, I was going to keep him here for observation. His Nen has burned out completely, and he's barely alive. I was actually planning to see if I could rebuild his mind- from what I could see when he was ripping up my valley..." an expression of pain crossed Fettham's face, but he forced it back "he had used the Condition and the Pledge in an unwise way- in exchange for the ability to kill instantly with his aura, he sacrificed a little of his sanity each time he did so. What we saw was simply the end result of that."

Fettham looked at 'Iron Wolf' Thompson's uncomprehending face, and sighed. "Basically," he said, "Shea is in a coma that he'll probably never come out of. I plan to see if I can revive him and restore him to sanity- if I can, I'll be in touch with your government."

Thompson thought it over, then shrugged. "Works for me- doesn't seem to be a lot of point in bringing in a half-dead vegetable. So how am I getting home?"

"Well, I can't send you back through the vortex..." Fettham started, "would you be able to make your own way home from the Southern Peace Jackson Expeditionary base? That's the closest transport hub to here."

Thompson shrugged. "I could probably manage it without too much trouble." he said, "And to be honest... as fascinating as this place is, I'd like to get home as soon as I can- I haven't seen my family for more than three years. My son is about the age of these three- I'd like to see him again."

"Easily arranged." Fettham said, "You'll be on the outskirts of the expeditionary base in less than two hours." He stepped outside and whistled, and Pilgrim stooped down, landing with a flutter outside the house. "Hop aboard." Fettham smiled. Thompson eyed the huge bird warily, then shrugged.

Jumping onto the falcon's back, he called out "Feel free to keep the rifle for whatever- it's illegal military hardware, and carrying it around would cause more problems than it would solve." Ryozha, Gon and Killua came outside, and all four waved as the tracker soared upwards, disappearing from view in the Northwest.

Back inside, Fettham pulled out the ring. Feeding a delicate thread of Nen through it, he held it away from himself as a huge relief map sprang out of it. All three boys studied it carefully, Gon with his eyes shining with enthusiasm, Killua as impassively as usual, and Ryozha with a certain feeling of relief. -_Finally, we're getting somewhere..._- he thought.

Then the map winked out and another grew in its place.

Ryozha blinked. "Er... what?" he asked.

Fettham smiled faintly. "There's at least eight maps in this thing- which one you get depends on how you feed your Nen through it." He paused. "I'll teach you how to get the different maps out of it, but it may take a few days."

Ryozha glanced at Gon, who grinned. "That's fine." he said. "If we're going to do this, we're going to do it right."

"Good boys." Fettham said. "We may as well start right now... it works a lot like imbuing your Nen into something..."

The next few days passed swiftly- Fettham trained them carefully in the mornings, and in the afternoons they helped to replant the valley. By the third day, Gon could consistently get six of the maps, and Ryozha and Killua four. That afternoon, rather than taking them out to the fields scorched by Shea's Nen, he took them into one of his outbuildings. There, under a warm heatlamp, three huge eggs lay.

"I wasn't going to show you this," Fettham said, "but I figure you earned it- you fought for my valley when all you had to do was take to the hills. Meet Ryozha II, Gon II, and Killua II... or at least, they will be when they hatch."

Gon's grin was so big that it threatened to take off the top of his head, and even Killua looked pleased, but Ryozha shook his head. "No, Mr. Fettham... Could you name the first one Aguila II?"

Fettham looked at him for a long moment, then nodded. "Of course, kid. Anyways, now that we've got the sappy stuff taken care of, let's get back to work."

By the fifth day, they could get all eight maps consistently between the three of them- Each of them could get one the others could not, along with the five that all of them could get. "That's it, then." Fettham told them. "I can't teach you a thing more. Where're you headed from here?"

"Probably back to Constantis." Ryozha said, "Since we can protect ourselves with our Nen, we can use your vortex, so it's the easiest place to get to from here, and we need to check these Nen-maps against regular maps, so we can figure out where they are."

Fettham nodded. "Actually, I can help you with part of that..." he said. "Pop up the third map- that's almost definitely the Green Jewel Plateau, not far from Antananarivo. I had a hunt there 'round about sixty years ago. Nasty area, but beautiful."

"Thanks, Mr. Fettham!" Gon exclaimed.

"Don't mention it, kid. Anyways, you're wasting daylight- if you're in a hurry, you should probably get back to Constantis today."

Gon, Killua and Ryozha glanced at each other. "Of course." Killua said.

A short while later they were standing on the edge of the clearing that the vortex to Constantis was. "All right," Fettham said, "don't forget to jump as you come out of the wormhole, or you won't make it back into the Fortress." As they moved towards the vortex, Fettham called after them "Oh, and Ryozha- tell that brat Ping Lee that I'll come out of my valley when I'm good and ready... but he's welcome to come visit me, if he's willing to work." Ryozha grinned, tossed him a lazy salute, and hopped into the vortex.

A few moments of time-space distortions later, they were once again on the battlements of the Fortress of the Forgotten Crusade. Gon stretched out, and the other two followed suit. "Feels like this Hunt is finally getting somewhere." Ryozha commented, pitching an importunate monster off the battlements. "Things are starting to pick up."

In another part of the world, Ryozha's words echoed through a small room. The Enforcer studied the tiny glowing image of his target. "Yes," he murmured with an unpleasant smile, "things are starting to pick up indeed."


	6. Chapter 6

Ryozha eased around the corner of the darkened alleyway. -_I don't believe this... we didn't even make it all the way back to Constantis before those Knight-Guardian wannabes nearly grabbed us. As it was, they WOULD have, if Gon hadn't smacked that one guy in the face so hard he went through a wall..._-

There was a slight noise in the alley, and he jumped, whirling, staff in hand before his seventh sense pinpointed the source as an alley cat.

-_Grr... I hate being out here alone, but however they're following us, they seem to be focussing on me. So I'm the best one to lead them on a wild goose chase. Speaking of which..._- He blurred down the alleyway, sprinting straight up the wall of the buildings at the end, and raced a third of the way across the city on the rooftops.

-_Hopefully that'll keep them busy for a few minutes. I hope Gon and Killua are okay scouting out a clear path to the airport. We've **GOT** to get out of here._- He peered over the edge of the rooftop, all six senses extended to their limits. On the street below, a small car rocketed up, and three Knight-Guardians piled out.

-_Holy..! I can sense the auras from their weapons alone from HERE! **HOW ARE THEY TRACKING ME?**_-

Another car screeched up in the street behind the building that he was on, and Ryozha cursed, briefly but with considerable feeling. The world slowed, and his eyes darted back and forth, judging angles, calculating velocities, and abruptly, he moved.

Trailing sheets of ghostly friction flame, he hurled himself across the rooftops like a meteor, shrieking down the street at nearly three thousand miles an hour. As he raced, his seventh sense flared a warning, and he dove, half-jumping, half-flying in a very nearly flat arc. A hail of arrows passed over his head, glowing white-hot with compression heating and leaving a roaring wake of thunder and fire.

Ryozha, his eyes wide with shock, regained his feet on the next rooftop and put his head down, accelerating grimly. -_I'd better hope that they don't have too many guys who can do that,_- he thought, his mouth a thin, worried line, -_or this is gonna be a real short chase._-

Passing across the city in less than 20 seconds, he paused for a fraction of a second at the city borders, then kept going, racing across country. Seven minutes later, he was on the other side of the country, four hundred miles away.

He paused in a thriving coastal city to catch his breath. Glancing around at the gleaming steel towers and palm trees, he hesitated... -_Place looks kinda familiar... ah, of course. This is Antalya- Turkania's greatest tourist trap. Nice place, though._- His head whipped around at the sound of screeching tires and slamming doors.

He froze, momentarily stunned, as the same two nondescript cars came to a halt in front of and behind him, and the same seven Knight-Guardians piled out of them. Something inside him snapped. -_... That's **IT**!_-

Shifting back to speed awareness, he raced forwards, ignoring the Knight-Guardians' grabs for him, rendered clumsy by slow-motion. Tearing the gas caps off the two cars in quick succession, he tossed a spark of friction fire into each.

Then, as an afterthought, he took the Archer-Guardian's bow away and beat him over the head with it a few times until it broke (head or bow, he wasn't fussy), then sprinted away as the two cars went up in twinned fireballs. -_Hopefully that will keep them busy for a while._- he thought angrily.

As Ryozha raced back across the country to Constantis, Gon edged cautiously around a corner. The twisting alleyways of Constantis were both a blessing and a curse, as it made it easy for both hunter and hunted to hide in ambush or slip away. -_This is crazy._- he thought, -_Every time I think I've lost them, I see them again, even when I just run for it!_-

Approaching the airport from the other side, Killua was finding much the same thing. -_This is impossible...-_ he thought, -_there's no WAY they can be tracking me. Even the Genei Ryodan lost me when I moved like this..! Gotta keep moving..._-

On the outskirts of Constantis, Ryozha paused for a minute, scanning the area. -_Good... that seems to have slowed them down a little, or at least they're not popping out of the woodwork all-but-instantaneously any more._- He pulled out his phone and conference-called Gon and Killua.

Once they told him what was going on, he stopped and thought for a long while. "Do you guys think you can keep clear of them for another twenty minutes or so? I have a plan." Ryozha told them.

"Sure." Gon told him, at the same time Killua said "No problem- they don't seem to know exactly where we are, even if they can find the general area too easily for me to be comfortable."

"Great." Ryozha said. "I'll see you in twenty."

Nineteen minutes later, Ryozha was racing full speed towards where Gon had said he would meet him. -_Gyeesh... Amazing how long it takes to find a hardware store when you don't read the local language... Aha... here they are._-

Stretching his Speed Awareness, Ryozha pushed himself harder, passing amongst the Knight-Guardians like a hyperactive bolt of lightning. Eighteen rolls of Nen-reinforced duct tape later, the Knight-Guardians were hopelessly tangled to each other, nearby lampposts, and, in one case, to a moving truck.

"Okay! That won't hold them for long- Gon, go arrange a flight to Whale Island." Gon nodded, and Ryozha ran for Killua's position. -_Good thing I learned a little about imbuing my Nen to stuff from Mr. Fettham._- Ryozha thought in passing.

Once Killua's pursuers were similarily disposed of, Ryozha and Killua ran for the airport. "Gon should already have us a flight." Ryozha said.

"Good... I hope that it's soon." Killua responded.

"No guarantees, mate- I told him to get the first connection through to Whale Island."

"What? Why?"

"Seemed simplest- and if we actually wait for it, we may convince them that that's where we're actually going."

They rounded the final corner and headed into the airport terminal, hurrying but no longer sprinting at superhuman speeds. A quick call to Gon's cellphone had them heading to Gate 17, and the airport lounge there.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Ryozha..." Killua told him.

Ryozha shook his head. "I'm not sure. But so far they seem to be putting a higher importance on secrecy than catching us." he half-shrugged. "If they keep going the same way, we should be able to get airborne without too much trouble, and be fine until we get where we're going."

After a long, nervous wait, during which the Knight-Guardians completely and utterly failed to storm the airport lounge and take them hostage, the three boys were airborne and headed to Whale Island via Zaban.

Three days later, Ryozha was half out of his mind with boredom, and close to driving Killua and Gon completely out of theirs.

He rolled over in bed and drummed his heels on the wall of the small cabin he shared with Gon and Killua both. "Remind me again why I wanted to get on this flying Banana boat?" he complained.

"You **SAID**..." Killua growled, "that this was a chance to get a rest from being chased everywhere. You **SAID** that we might even get a bit of a jump on the Knight-Guardians as far as our next destination goes. You **SAID** that they seemed to have a hard time tracking us when we're airborne, which is why they had an agent aboard the flight to Pyotokia rather than just popping out wherever we were. You **SAID** that the Knight-Guardians probably wouldn't attack us on an Airship, since they value secrecy." by this point Killua was half-shouting.

"But what you **_DIDN'T_** say," Killua said, shouting for real, now, "is that you would **COMPLAIN** for the **_ENTIRE TRIP!_**"

Ryozha flinched back. "Sorry... it's just... well, I know I've said it already, but I'm used to moving on my own, and I could have been there and back nine times already." He sighed. "I'm still worried about Oz, y'know. The office couldn't or wouldn't tell me where she was, and said that no one had seen her since the night we went to the Fortress of the Forgotten Crusade. Oh well... I guess there's not much we can do from here. At least we've got some time to figure out where we're going next."

Gon looked at him oddly. "Why haven't we done that yet, anyways?"

Killua glanced from one to the other. "Because he hasn't stopped whining for the last two days, and it's kept you and me from concentrating?" he suggested.

Ryozha glared at Killua. "**Anyways**, why don't we take care of it now?"

Gon and Killua both nodded emphatically. "ANYTHING to shut you up for a while..." Killua muttered.

Once Ryozha had his laptop open and all three were focussed on matching the maps, all their bickering was quickly forgotten. The ring was passed back and forth rapidly as they scanned hundreds of maps.

After about ten minutes of intense concentration, Ryozha leaned back and stretched. Then he grinned mischeviously. "I have an idea to make this more fun AND speed things up a little."

"Oh, no." Killua said, waving his finger. "No bets. You have WAY too big an advantage in speed."

"So you don't think you can do it, huh?" Ryozha smirked.

Killua froze. "I..." he started to say, but Gon interrupted.

"What were you thinking of, Ryozha?" he asked.

"May as well keep it small... how about, whoever matches five maps first, the other two have to buy their snacks until the end of this hunt?"

Killua smiled cynically. "Okay, but... if you claim you made the matches, but you're wrong, you have to buy snacks for both the other two." Gon grinned broadly, and Ryozha answered his grin. "You're on!" they both said.

A few minutes later, they were sitting in the airship's on-board cybercafe. Killua and Gon each claimed a computer, and Ryozha hooked his laptop into the network.

"Okay," Gon called, "Three.. two... one... GO!"

The cyber-lounge was filled with the stacatto sound of high-speed typing far into the night. Or at least, it would have been, had Ryozha not yelled out less than ten minutes later "Got it!"

Killua glanced at Gon. "TOLD you." he said, looking put out.

Gon ignored him and hurried over to where Ryozha was sitting.

The ring flickered, and Ryozha held it in front of the screen so that the map that appeared overlapped the one that the computer was displaying.

"So where's that?" Gon asked.

"Allixen, believe it or not," Ryozha told him, "you know, where that Wolf guy was from."

Gon and Killua nodded, and Ryozha switched maps in the ring.

"Huh?" Killua said, then nodded, "Oh, right- that's the map that Gon and I can't get to work. Now that I see it again, I bet I can guess... That's those three weird doors in York Shin, isn't it?" he asked.

Ryozha nodded, bringing up the map on the computer as well. Then he switched maps again, but stopped when it had fully formed. He frowned. "This isn't the map that I meant to bring up..." he said, starting to switch, then paused. "Hang on!" he said excitedly. "I think I finally recognized that map... I THOUGHT it looked familiar." He flickered through a few dozen more screens on his laptop. After a second or two, he brought up a map of his own.

"This is my travel journal," he told Gon and Killua, "and this is a little town I stopped through when I was tracking the Black Lotus Gang. I was following some Mafia connections, but quit when they didn't point to the Gang. It's a little place in Guardania called Cervit."

"Uhm... so?" Killua wanted to know.

"I know!" Gon exclaimed, "You think that that's where the Knight-Guardian's Fortress is!"

Ryozha nodded. "One thing I remember about Cervit is that I was really disappointed that I couldn't visit the huge old castle atop the peak there. I did some checking later, just 'cos I was curious, and I found out that the local council of Cervit has adamantly refused to let anybody study the castle, even under extreme pressure from the national government of Guardania. They claimed the mountain was badly unstable, even though there hasn't even been so much as a rockslide for seventy years."

"It sounds like they're hiding something, all right." Killua agreed.

"So do we head for Guardania, then?"

"We're probably going to end up there in any case," Ryozha agreed, "but there's one other thing you should know. Remember those dark-suited guys that tried to kidnap Ping Lee?" Gon and Killua nodded. "They were agents for the country of Bederusse, which has a major interest in whether or not I find the treasure. Thing is- up until about fifteen years ago, Guardania was claimed by Bederusse. So they're very likely to take notice if I turn up there."

Killua shrugged. "We'll deal with that when it comes." Gon nodded, and Ryozha smiled faintly.

"Sounds good to me." he said.

Over the next few days the three Hunters refined their plan, going over every possibility they could think of. Finally, the night before they were due to land in Zaban, they were all sitting in their small cabin.

Ryozha was staring at his bank book in some shock- "I can't believe you ate this much worth of snacks in just three days, Killua..." he mumbled.

Killua gave him a catlike smile, and said "You should have thought of that before you claimed to have all of them when you made a mistake on the last one." Ryozha made a face at him, and Killua's smile faded. "Anyways, Let's go over the basic plan again." Gon nodded seriously, and Ryozha groaned, but put his bank book away and sat down.

Ryozha flipped open his laptop. "Okay... it took a bit of searching, but here's the basic layout of the Zaban airport." he moved the cursor, highlighting one of the gates and one of the airline desks.

"Here's where we're gonna get off this airship, and this is the desk that we need to go to to get tickets to Massechou. It's the capital of Bederusse, which is both good and bad- good, because it should hopefully distract them for a while as to where we're really going, and bad, because it makes it easy for them to know our route. Unfortunately, it's the only major destination that has a natural layover in Guardania, so we don't have a lot of choice."

Gon nodded. "Right." he said. "So... let's see. When we get off, you're going to go to the Whale Island terminal and wait. I'll get the tickets to Massechou, and Killua will go order tickets back to York Shin, and then we'll all get onto the helicopter that Ryozha chartered to Whale Island and fly around until the final boarding call for the flight to Massechou."

Killua nodded. "If the Knight Guardians show up, we'll use the emergency phonerings we used for sneaking into Boss Myoji's mansion, and fight them if we have to, but we've got to get onto the airship for Massechou." He said. Gon grinned. "Operation: Vanishing Hunters sounds like it's ready to go!"

Ryozha grimaced at the name but didn't comment, then shrugged, grinned and high-fived both Gon and Killua. "All right..." he said, "all we've gotta do now is... _sigh_... wait." Gon and Killua started to laugh, and he groaned.

--

As Gon, Killua and Ryozha's airship plodded its slow way through the night, the Enforcer found himself once more kneeling before the Lord Captain of the Knight-Guardians.

"You cal… Yes, my lord?" the Enforcer said.

"Ah, Ethan." the Lord Captain said. "Do you have any… successes… to report regarding the matter of the Speed Hunter?"

The Enforcer said nothing for a long moment, looking at the floor to hide his fury. "My lord, you know I do not." he said finally.

"Yes. You chose your tools unwisely, Ethan. I must confess… I am somewhat disappointed." the Lord Captain told him. -_Although, I must say, I am glad in a way that he did not confront the boy- it means that there is still a chance to capture him alive while I decide what to do._- he thought privately. He frowned pensively. "You may go, Ethan. Have the Monitor inform me when he can track the child again."

"As you command, Lord Captain." the Enforcer bowed and went out.

He sat in troubled silence for a short time, then stirred as the slender form of a young woman emerged from the shadows of the draperies behind him. "Ah, Angelica darling. I trust your perceptions more than my own... is Ethan..?" he didn't finish the question.

She shook her head, deep, sea-green eyes troubled in the shadow of long lashes. "No, Lord Commander." she told him. "He is becoming steadily more unstable- I feared he would attack you on the spot."

The Lord Commander chuckled softly and ruffled her golden curls. "Spare me that Lord Commander nonsense, especially when we're alone. I am still your grandfather, Angelica, even though you may be a grown-up-healer now."

She blushed, and he made a face at her. "And none of that wilting flower act, either. There's steel in your spine girl, and I know that better than anyone. In fact, I think you may be able to succeed where the Enforcer failed. I have the beginnings of a plan; let me think, and I will tell you what we need to do..." His voice trailed off, and, after a time, his granddaughter left him to think.

--

A lazy wind drifted across the chilly tarmac of the Zaban airport, faintly jostling the airship as it floated in for a gentle touchdown. Before the door was even completely open, the three young Hunters were already halfway to the terminal, splitting apart like a precision drill team when they hit the doors.

--

Back in the Aerie fortress, an ancient alarm system rang a special tone, and Nen-lights flared in the appropriate rooms. The Enforcer was in the Monitor's room within seconds -_Almost like he'd been lurking outside..._- the Monitor thought, a little disgruntled.

Wisely not giving any hint of that, he said "The Speed Hunter is back on the scope. The Emission team has already been alerted, and is warming up- they should be ready in a few minutes. I left it to you to decide what sort of strikeforce will go."

"Good." said the Enforcer shortly, and vanished back out the door. -_Friggin' loon..._- the Monitor thought to himself.

--

In the airport, Ryozha, Gon and Killua had flashed their Hunter cards to bypass the security checkpoints, then raced for their assigned spots. Ryozha got to the Whale Island helipad first (unsurprisingly), and the pilot soon had the whirlybird warming up. Seconds later, Killua was fuming in the line for Southern Peace Airlines, and a minute after that, on the far side of the terminal, Gon was getting tickets for Massechou at the SlavAir desk.

--

In the Aerie Fortress, the Enforcer had rousted his chosen men out of bed. Grumbling (very quietly) and rubbing their eyes, one or two yawned ostentatiously, then shut up when the Enforcer glared at them.

"All right." he snapped. "The Speed Hunter is on the ground again. This is to be a surgical strike- move in, grab the boy and his companions, and return. Do not bother engaging any others, no matter what the provocation. Emission team, are you ready?"

The three who were standing on the corners of the large, slightly raised triangle in the flooring nodded. "Five minutes until the portal initialization is fully stabilized, Chief Enforcer." the lead Emission user reported.

"Excellent. He will not escape me this time." the Enforcer said.

--

In the airport, Ryozha was pacing nervously while Gon perched on one of the lounge chairs and watched, unperturbed. Then Gon cocked his head and turned to stare hard at the doors of a nearby washroom. "Something... strange... is going on over there." he said.

Ryozha stopped pacing and turned to stare as well. "Yeah..." he said after a moment, "there's some kind of crazy Nen-buildup happening. I think we'd better call Killua and..."

Killua came jogging up. "I HATE lines." was his only comment.

"You and me both, but never mind that now." Ryozha said, grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the door. "Let's get on that chopper and get out of here." Killua sort of shrugged and let himself be dragged.

--

The Knight-Guardians trickled out of the bathroom in groups of two and three, keeping to the shadows and using "In", being largely ignored by passers by and the airport personnel. The Monitor gestured towards the helipad, and the dozen Knight Guardians moved out, swiftly and with martial precision.

Once outside, the Enforcer looked questioningly to the Monitor, who shook his head and shrugged. "They're airborne again." he said.

The Enforcer frowned and glanced around. "They can't have gotten far." he said. "They must be in one of those..." he trailed off, sizing up the handful of aircraft that had just taken off.

--

Aboard the chopper as it rose smoothly to altitude, Ryozha scanned the tarmac with anxious eyes. Gon was eagerly watching the pilot, taking in her every motion, and Killua appeared to have dozed off.

--

As the other Knight-Guardians watched with varying degrees of consternation, the Enforcer unlimbered his Morningstar. One of the bolder ones ventured to say "Sir... are you sure..?" before being cut off by a glare from the Enforcer. He spun the Morningstar once or twice, then let fly, the spiked ball blurring up and outwards, the chain stretching to impossible lengths.

--

Aboard the chopper, the pilot shouted and fought for control as the machine suddenly shot forwards and dropped like a stone at the same time. Once he had regained control and checked that his passengers were all right, she muttered something about windshear and set the machine to climbing back to his assigned altitude.

Gon and Killua looked questioningly- and in Killua's case, a little irritatedly- he had actually bounced off the ceiling when the chopper dropped- at Ryozha, who simply waved towards the dwindling airport and then pointed to his own Gyo-glowing eyes.

"The Knight-Guardians?" Gon yelled over the racket of the rotors.

Ryozha nodded. Seeing no more incoming attacks, he relaxed a little. -_Guess we're out of range for the moment._- he thought. He smiled tightly through his stress as he registered what it was pounding out of his earphones. -_Ha... thing seems to be in a bit of a U2 mood today... "Elevation", heh._-

--

Back on the ground, the Enforcer cursed virulently, but calmed a little when the Monitor informed him that he knew where the helicopter was going. -_Can't believe that **I** actually had to send one of the men to go gather that information._- the Monitor thought, -_Ethan is seriously losing it- he should have done that before he even tried to knock it out of the sky._- The handful of Knight-Guardians meandered back into the bathroom with careful nonchalance, reappearing back in the transport triangle at the Aerie Fortress.

"How long?" the Enforcer barked to the Emission team. "We can have you on the island in about four minutes, Chief Enforcer." the head of the Emission team informed him. "Good." the Enforcer said. Turning to his men, he said "We wait.", and then turned his back to them, holding the 'at ease' position.

--

Aboard the helicopter, Ryozha had finally managed to persuade the pilot to fly only about two hours towards Whale Island and then return, to catch the flight to Massechou.

--

On Whale Island, the Knight-Guardians ringed the helipad, patiently waiting for the helicopter, which was scheduled to arrive at any moment. "He will NOT escape me this time." the Enforcer declared, "This I **VOW**. This I shall **DO!**"

The Monitor swallowed. He tapped the Enforcer on the shoulder and said "Sir... I would not be so hasty in making such a vow. He is on the ground again... back in Zaban."

The Enforcer stared at him in shocked disbelief for a long moment, then began to swear, cursing the airlines, helicopters, the Emission team, the Monitor, then moving on to the Speed Hunter, cursing him, his 'cowardice', his cunning, his ancestry... when he had reached seven generations back and was starting to work his way back forwards, the Monitor, a little awed by his sheer creativity, decided it was time to intervene.

A few minutes later, he had managed to calm the Enforcer and they were back in the Aerie Fortress, awaiting the Emission team's reset. As the transportation triangle warmed back up again, the Monitor suddenly slumped. "It's no use, sir. They're off the grid again."

A moments later, Angelica raced up at the head of her triage team. She was met at the door by the Enforcer, his Morningstar in his hand and bloody to the hilt. He caught Angelica by the arm and leered down at her. "Why waste your time repairing those incompetent fools, Sister Angelica, when you could have... me?" he said, his tongue sliding over his lips.

Angelica yanked her arm out of his grip. "You know the nature of my abilities, Ethan." she said. "I cannot refuse aid to those in need of it, or it will cost me my life. Now get out of my way!"

"Very well, Sister Angelica." the Enforcer said with a small, deranged smile. "You may go... for now." Angelica ignored him and plunged through the doorway, her hands already glowing gently with healing Nen.

--

Aboard the SlavAir airship, Gon, Killua and Ryozha high-fived one another.

"Yes!" Killua said. "I can't believe that it worked so well!"

Ryozha shook his head. "Me neither, if I'm honest." he said. "Heh... those Knight-Guardian wannabes are probably about ready to have a stroke by now." Gon grinned, and the three of them were soon clustered around Ryozha's laptop for some gaming.

--

In a bunker beneath the central square of Massechou, a mid-ranking technician had just made the discovery that would eventually cost him his career.

"Sir!" he called, bringing over the Watch Officer. "According to our tracking programs, both the Speed Hunter and the Gem Huntress who are seeking the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate are due to be in Guardania in a matter of days... the town of Cervit, to be exact."

"How long?" the Watch Officer demanded.

"Not very... both are on flights that have a layover there, bound for here, in Massechou."

The Watch Officer nodded. "The Grand Treasure of the Ophirate cannot be here, or we would have found it long ago. Most likely the connection is a blind. In any case, forward your findings to the analysts- Central Intelligence will have to decide what to do with this."

"As you command, sir."

--

The voyage to Cervit passed uneventfully aboard the airship. On the final night before their arrival in Guardania, Gon called the other two over to his section of their small cabin. "I have an idea," he said. "You know how they always find us as soon as we hit the ground? Well... since 'In' didn't work, why don't we go in using Zetsu?"

Ryozha frowned. "I don't like the idea," he said finally, "since it would leave us defenseless if we were surprised. But I have to admit I don't have a better one." He glanced at Killua. "How about you, Killua? Anything?"

Killua shook his head. "I think Gon's idea is the best one we're going to get for now, until we get a better idea of the enemy's capabilities."

"All right then," Gon said, "it's settled." Ryozha looked like he wanted to argue some more, but shrugged and nodded.

The airship the three boy Hunters were on bumped to a halt at the airport of Cervit, and Gon, Killua and Ryozha disembarked to breathe the air of the high mountain meadows.

"Okay..." Ryozha said, gesturing towards the ancient castle that loomed high over the town. "If our guess is correct, that's the Aerie Fortress." He paused. "But I'm not so sure it's a good idea to just go charging off and breaking into it."

Gon shook his head. "You're right," he said, "we need to look around the town a little bit first- there might be something we need to know."

They ambled casually into the aerodrome, fidgeting through the line, only to find they had to show their Hunter cards anyways, because Ryozha, who was supposed to have done so, had forgotten to get tourist visas. -_Bah... that was stupid._- Ryozha grumbled to himself. -_Oh well... if we've caught anybody's attention, they'll know in a couple of hours that we didn't get onto that flight anyways._-

A few hours later found them in a small tour group, viewing the snowy... er, 'wonders' of Cervit. Finally, as the afternoon dragged on, the loud, obnoxious tourists from the Southern Peace that all three boys had been trying desperately to ignore suddenly had their undivided attention.

"What about that there castle-y thing?" the plump older man demanded. "I want t'get some good pictures, and that's the most interesting thing in this little dump so far."

The guide spluttered a bit, and Killua smoothly interjected "Why doesn't the tour go up there, anyways? It certainly looks like it would attract tourists."

The guide shook his head. "It is unsafe- the mountain is not very stable, and the castle has been abandoned for hundreds of years."

"Don't you know anything about it?" Gon asked, sounding genuinely disappointed -_And for that matter, he probably is..._- Ryozha thought, -_He's one of the most genuine guys I've ever met. His heart's on his sleeve... and it's amazing how well it works for him._-

The guide shook his head again. "I'm afraid not," he said, "Most of our older records were destroyed or taken when Bederusse took over this country, eighty years ago. Even the folk legends are of little use... some nonsense about it being built by mountain spirits or something. Not even a hint as to who the true builders were."

-_I'm impressed,_- Killua thought, -_either this guy's been fed the same line he just fed us, or he's one of the smoothest liars I've seen._-

After the tour, they convened in Gon's hotel room. "Well... I don't think we learned a lot from that tour..." Gon said.

"Right... except that either the tour guides are amazingly fluent liars, or they're being lied to themselves by some fluent liars." Killua added.

"Dunno how useful that is," Ryozha said gloomily, "but I guess we're going to have to work with what we've got. I didn't find much at the library, or online... just a few reports of the deaths of some people who went poking around up in that part of the mountains, and a lot of stupid legends that are so badly distorted they don't even make _sense_."

Gon shrugged. "I don't think most of the people here know much of anything. There's probably a few who do, but I didn't find them."

Killua shook his head. "I didn't find anyone either- they all seem weirdly reluctant to talk about the castle."

They were interrupted by a soft knock at the door. Gon hopped up and down a few times, trying to see through the peephole, then gave up and opened the door a crack. A girl not much older than them stood hesitantly in the doorway. Ryozha looked at her, then put one of his earphones up to his ear. -_Huh... Thing's started up on it's own again... and it's U2 again- "Angel of Harlem". Seems appropriate for her, somehow._-

After a moment, she spoke. "Excuse me..." she said, "Are you the Hunters that are seeking the Grand Treasure?"

Gon, Killua and Ryozha looked at one another. Whatever they had been expecting, this wasn't exactly it.

"Uhm..." Ryozha began.

"Oh no, it's all right..." the girl said. "My Grandfather wants to speak with you, and sent me to ask if you would come."

"Okaaaay... so who is your grandfather?" Killua asked.

"Why... the Lord Captain of the Knight-Guardians, of course!" the girl said, as if it was self-evident.

After a moment, Ryozha became aware that his jaw was hanging open, and closed his mouth. "Uhm... if he wants to TALK to us, why does he keep trying to have us killed?" Killua wanted to know.

"What!?" the girl exclaimed. "No, no! They had orders not to harm you, to capture you only."

"Oh." Killua said flatly, radiating skepticism.

"Please!" the girl said, "At least consider it- it's very important!"

"Uhm... okay." Gon said. "What's your name, anyways?"

She blinked. "I didn't tell you yet?" she asked. When they shook their heads, she blushed. "Oh... my name is Angelica... Sister Angelica. I'm a healer."

Gon smiled at her, and she relaxed a little. Seeing that she wasn't going anyplace, Ryozha said, "Well... we don't have any better leads right now. I vote we trust her and go. I can get us out if need be- my Kinetic Battery ability is fully charged now."

Gon nodded. "I think we should trust her too. She seems nice." Killua frowned, but nodded his assent.

Sister Angelica led them out of the hotel, into the waning evening light as a light dusting of snow fell over the Alpine village. She moved quickly, passing through the streets like a fleeting vision. Soon, the three Hunters had to release their Zetsu and use Nen to keep up.

They were nearing the edge of town when the sound of rotors froze them in their tracks. Seconds later, the -CRUMP!- of an explosion punctuated the evening stillness, followed by the rumbling of the shockwave. The young foursome turned, their eyes darting around, trying to spot the source of the sound. They didn't have to look for long.

As they watched, a quartet of bulbous attack helicopters flew overhead, peeling off and re-forming for another attack run. In the village proper, the sudden bitter chattering of machinegun fire shattered the silence, followed by the wail of an air raid siren.

"It's a commando raid!" Killua called over the noise.

The siren cut off abruptly, and the noise was replaced by a steady rumbling. "Tanks?" Ryozha yelled over the noise. "This isn't a raid... it's a war!" He looked at Sister Angelica. "Sorry, Sis. But it looks like my presence here has prompted something that needs to be brought under control." He glanced at his partners. "Coming?" he asked.

Gon and Killua nodded. "Mm-hm!" Gon said. They charged down the hillside into the darkening streets, flaring bright with Nen.

Sister Angelica stared after them for a long moment, looking slightly stunned.

Finally, she mumbled "Sis..?" with a faint, bemused smile on her face. The smile vanished instantly when another explosion sounded from the village, intermingled with a scream.

Suddenly looking deadly serious, she straightened, flared with Nen, and whispered "Angel of Mercy!". Her aura quivered, flowing to her shoulders, and became a pair of enormous, feathery wings. She soared into the twilight, swooping down on the town to save those she could.

Down in the town, the three boys surveyed the situation from the rooftop. "There's enough of them that we should probably stay close." Gon said. "These guys are soldiers, and they might have fought Nen users before." Killua and Ryozha nodded. Gon made to jump off, but Ryozha stopped him.

"What are they shooting at, anyways? I didn't think there was a military base near here... I didn't even think this town had a militia." Gon and Killua shrugged.

"No idea." Killua said, then paused, pointing. "Look over there!"

In the street, a small cluster of Bederusse soldiers had taken up positions behind what cover there was available, firing at a small-ish A-frame house. From out of the house came the flat -CRACK- of a rifle, and a small shower of grenades. The surviving soldiers scattered, then regrouped with martial precision, one now carrying a bazooka. One fiery explosion later, and the rifle fire from the house was stilled.

"Looks like the townspeople aren't exactly helpless..." Ryozha commented, "but they're still way overmatched. Where should we start?"

Gon glanced around, then pointed. "There!" he said, "Let's stop those tanks."

Ryozha looked at him. "Uhm... tanks? Ooooooookay then..." He half-shrugged and hopped off the rooftop, following the others.

A minute or two later, Ryozha was dusting off his hands. -_Well... that was easier than I thought it would be..._- he thought to himself. He and Killua had cleared away the tank's escort of infantry, and Gon had smashed off it's anti-personnel machinegun. With that accomplished, Killua sent a few jolts of electricity through it to ruin the radio and scare out the crew. Ryozha knocked them over the head when they popped out, and Gon finished things off by pounding on the barrel of the main gun until it snapped off.

After they'd 'killed' two more tanks that way and knocked out a couple of squads of soldiers, Ryozha motioned for a halt. "There should be one more tank in this group, far as I know- most countries deploy them in platoons of four. Do you guys think you can handle things for a few minutes without me?"

"Sure, I guess so." Gon said, "But why?"

"I'm gonna go topside and see if I can't put a lid on those gunships- they're starting to bug me."

With that statement, Ryozha blurred down the street, accelerating crazily. -_Glad I absorbed plenty of kinetic energy during our downtime._- he thought. Flipping his momentum ninety degrees, he shot up the side of the tallest building he could find (-_five stories... sigh_-), launching himself high into the air, aiming for one of the low-flying helicopters.

He latched on to one of the landing struts and grinned. -_Kinda sad how easy it is for me to take out a helicopter._- he thought. Concentrating briefly, he simply sucked the kinetic energy out of the chopper, stalling the engine and stilling the rotors.

It dropped like a stone as the pilots frantically tried to restart it, then bailed out. Just before the helicopter hit the street, Ryozha yanked the kinetic energy out of it again, dropping it as gently as a falling leaf. Then he hopped up on top and, with a powerful burst of kinetic energy, ripped the main rotor off. _-Perfection._- he thought, charging down the street to find the next helicopter.

While Ryozha was heli-hunting, Gon and Killua were facing bigger problems at ground level. They had disposed of the last tank easily enough, but had run across a large group of commandoes on the way. Pinned by enemy fire, they were trapped in a building that was in the process of distintegrating.

Gon ducked as a bullet whistled past. "Should we call Ryozha?" he yelled over the steady hammer of automatic fire.

Killua shook his head vehemently. "NO! We can handle this!"

"How? We can't go out the front door, and the back part of the house has already fallen down!"

"Wait... these houses are pretty close together, aren't they?" Killua asked.

"Close?" Gon yelled, "That's one of the things that I said was weirdest about this place, remember? All the houses are stuck together..."

Killua grinned suddenly. "Remember how we got away from Nobunaga, that Ryodan guy with the sword?"

Gon grinned back. "Let's go! Although let's go the same direction this time."

After waiting for a lull in the fire, they charged across the debris-littered floor, ducking into the next room, then smashing through the wall that separated the two buildings.

There was a brief pause in the steady thunder of machinegun fire, then it traced across the face of the buildings, tracking them.

"They must have heat sensors!" yelled Killua.

"Come on, we've got to keep moving!" Gon yelled back. They sprinted through the building, smashing through the dividing wall again, then repeated, getting three or four buildings away.

"Okay..." Gon said. "We should be far enough away that they're going to have to reposition. Let's get onto the roof while we have the chance, so we'll have the high ground." Killua nodded, and they ran up the stairs.

In the air, Ryozha had taken a break from helicopter-splashing to survey the situation below. Clinging to the strut of the last remaining helicopter (and smiling faintly because he could 'hear' the pilots arguing about what was killing the other choppers with his seventh sense), he watched the town pass beneath him.

The faint smile vanished abruptly when he saw Sister Angelica standing between a group of townspeople and a large squad of soldiers. Almost unconsciously, he pumped kinetic energy into the helicopter and angled it towards them, ignoring the startled protests of the pilots as control of their machine was wrenched away from them.

--

Two minutes earlier

Sister Angelica landed in front of a small group of townspeople. "Non combatants follow me!" she said. "We are grouping those who cannot fight to evacuate." A handful of people separated off, and she led them to a much larger group.

"All right!" she called to the new arrivals. "Before we move out, are there any wounded among you?" A few called out, and she moved among them, healing here and there. "There. We're ready to go- we're headed for Annas, down on the lowlands. We should be able to reach it before daylight."

The sleepy townsfolk moved into a ragged line behind her, mothers carrying those too young to walk, small children supporting the very old, and all grumbling faintly.

They hadn't gone a hundred feet before a lone soldier stepped out from one of the side streets, blocking the way.

"Stand aside, puppet." Sister Angelica snapped.

The soldier didn't respond, simply gesturing and bringing dozens of troops pouring out of the surrounding streets. "Perhaps once we've shot a few hostages these fools will lay down their arms. We want nothing in this village. We were merely going to use it as a convenient staging grounds for our siege on the castle above!"

The soldiers levelled their rifles and aimed, ignoring Sister Angelica, who strode out to interpose herself between the soldiers and the non-combatants. They hesitated, though, at the sound of an angry shout from above.

Ryozha dropped the assault helicopter right on top of the mob of soldiers, vaulting off and containing the shockwave of the explosion on Sister Angelica's side by absorbing its kinetic energy.

Before the dazed commander had time to so much as shake his head, Ryozha was in his face. Grabbing the commander by his lapels, Ryozha dragged him partially upright, so they were nose to nose. "Hi!" he said brightly. "I caught that bit about shooting non-combatants. And I... am... not... impressed." he finished, his voice trailing off in a growl.

Dropping the commander, Ryozha blurred into the center of the stunned soldiers and let off a monstrous pulse of kinetic power, blasting them aside like dead leaves. When the last of the soldiers had bounced to a halt and none of them got up again, Ryozha dusted off his hands and turned to Sister Angelica.

He stopped when he noticed that her expression was one of transfixed horror. He spun around and froze briefly. A full platoon of soldiers, backed up by a pair of armoured personnel carriers and a lance of tanks was approaching rapidly. His face blanched. -_I'm close to my limit for control **already!** Sorry, Bisuke..._- he thought, and slipped his headphones on with one hand while hitting the fast-call button for Gon and Killua's phones, sending out the emergency code, with the other.

A short distance away, Gon and Killua glanced at one another, then raced towards where they'd seen the last helicopter go down. They had managed to lose their pursuers in Cervit's forest of chimneys, then doubled back and ambushed them, scattering and stunning them all with their impossible speed.

Meanwhile, Ryozha was unlimbering his jointed staff as he faced down the soldiers. Strauss's "The Hero's Battlefield" roared at 1000x speed out of his earphones, and he grimaced faintly. -_Now THERE's a promising sign..._- he thought unhappily. Full speed awareness came almost disconcertingly quickly, and he launched himself forwards, charging the soldiers.

Gon and Killua raced down the street towards the sound of erratic gunfire.

"That's weird..." Killua said.

"What?" Gon asked.

"These guys are soldiers- highly trained commando types. But that shooting sounds almost random, like what you'd get if you gave a bunch of people off the street guns."

They crested a small rise to a scene of chaos. One tank was flipped completely over and had landed on another; both were burning. The left tread had been torn off one of the APCs, and was tethering the other two tanks together, welded onto their sides. And amidst the soldiers, a shimmering streak of red-and-gold Nen-fire burned, dancing amongst them, as devastating and untouchable as a lightning strike... for a time.

Even as they watched, though, Ryozha faltered, his control slipped... and then he went down under an avalanche of soldier's boots and rifle butts.

"Quick!" Gon yelled, sprinting down the hill with fantastic speed, "While they're still too close to use their guns!" Killua was right behind him, and the two charged the soldiers much as Ryozha had moments earlier.

Gon and Killua peeled off, Gon going left, Killua going right and leaping high in the air. Gon charged through the soldiers, knocking them aside with simple Nen-force, and Killua let out an unearthly howl, loosing dozens of lightning bolts at once, scattering soldiers left and right, and blowing out every electrical device in one of the tanks.

Gon, meanwhile, bashed a hole in the side of the suriviving APC and pitched all the soldiers out. Then he hopped onto the roof and shattered its anti-personnel turret. By the time he got back down, Killua had landed next to where Ryozha had fallen, and the knot of soldiers around him were gently crumpling in unison.

Killua yanked Ryozha to his feet, and Gon landed next to them. They formed a tight group, back-to-back and studied the remaining soldiers, Ryozha barely on his feet.

"They're still disorganized!" Killua said.

"Get them!" Gon called, and they split up, faster than the eye could follow.

Moments later, the soldiers were disarmed and most of them were unconscious. Ryozha, Gon and Killua regrouped in the centre of what was left of the street and high-fived one another.

"All right!" Ryozha yelled, having recovered a little.

"Don't get too happy..." Killua cautioned him. "These guys want the treasure, and they want it bad- it's going to take more than losing one small group of soldiers to turn them back." Ryozha calmed down as if ice-water had been dumped on him, and he and Gon nodded seriously.

All three turned when Sister Angelica prodded Ryozha sharply in the back. "Why?" she demanded.

"Er... What?" Ryozha stuttered.

"Why are you risking your lives to combat these fools?" she demanded.

All three boys blinked, a little taken aback. "Uhm... is there any reason we SHOULDN'T be?" Ryozha finally asked.

Sister Angelica stared at him for a long moment, or possibly past him, at the retreating forms of the evacuating villagers, then turned abruptly. Gesturing imperiously, she barked "Follow me." She led them up the mountainside in silence, obviously lost in thought.

Eventually, they reached a small clearing in the thin pine forest that blanketed the hillside.

"Here." Sister Angelica announced shortly.

Ryozha glanced around. He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Gon also looked around briefly, then moved unerringly towards a small patch of grass that, as far as Ryozha could tell, was exactly the same as all the other patches of grass around. He poked at it briefly, then looked questioningly at Sister Angelica.

She smiled faintly, looking a little impressed, and reached out with her Nen. There was a soft rumbling, and the nondescript patch of grass became the opening of a tunnel leading into the mountainside.

She gestured the three boys inside. "Walk softly." she commanded. "There are those amongst the Guardians who would consider treason for me to have even spoken to you, much less shown you this passageway."

Gon, Killua and Ryozha all glanced at one another, then switched to 'In', fading around the edges and becoming nondescript parts of the background. Sister Angelica nodded, satisfied. "Very good." she said, "This way."

They passed through the musty corridors in silence, the air still and ancient. -_Well... I'm totally lost..._- Ryozha thought idly. -_And my GPS locator is useless this far underground... sigh. Be nice to have a better direction sense._-

After nearly two hours of walking (during which she'd one-handedly snagged Ryozha by the collar multiple times to keep him from zooming off ahead), Sister Angelica abruptly turned to an apparently blank section of wall. She stroked it with her Nen, and, with a faint grating noise, the wall slid open to reveal an opulently appointed study. An old man who bore a passing resemblance to Angelica sat in an ornate almost-throne, shuffling papers tiredly.

He glanced up and brightened noticeably when he saw who it was. "Angelica, my dear. I see that you have succeeded."

She bowed. "Grandfather." she said simply.

He motioned towards the door. "If you would be so good as to ward the door- we don't want any uninvited guests."

Sister Angelica obediently moved over to the door, then placed her hands on it and began glowing gently with Nen. After a moment, the door began to glow as well.

That accomplished, the old man turned to the three boys and studied them for a long moment. After a while, he commented "So... you three are the Hunters that have given my men so much trouble? Amazing. Such skill, and so young..."

He shook himself slightly, coming back to the present. "I suppose I should introduce myself." he said. "I am Lochaber Antiquares, Lord Captain of the Knight-Guardians."

Ryozha blinked. "Lochaber?" he blurted.

The Lord Captain grimaced slightly, whether in irritation or amusement, it was hard to tell. "My mother had somewhat of a melodramatic flair when it came to names, and an unfortunate fondness for historical romances, which resulted in my rather... unique... name. Perhaps you should simply call me 'Grandpa Loch', as most of our younger trainees do."

Ryozha, Gon and Killua all glanced at one another, but said nothing. "Okay, Grandpa Loch." Gon said. "So why did you want to talk to us?"

"Straight to business, are we?" the Lord Captain said with a faint smile. "Very well; I will do you the same courtesy. Perhaps it is just as well... our time may well be limited." He leaned forward with a very serious look on his face. "The matter before us is simple, Hunters. What, exactly, do you intend to do with the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate when you find it? Think closely, for your very lives may ride on your answer."

Killua started to say something, but Ryozha waved him off. "No point, Killua. You want to know what we plan? Very well." He paused to collect his thoughts, then began to tell the Lord Captain about Dr. Schrenk's plan, the World Money Council's involvement, and also about Boss Myoji's skimming of the Treasure- apparently, Dr. Schrenk was a woman with a good deal of forethought; she'd actually given Ryozha a Powerpoint presentation for exactly this sort of occasion.

"... so you see, Grandpa Loch, that's the plan. I don't know a lot about economics and that kind of stuff, but it looks to me like it has a good chance of working." Ryozha finished, closing his laptop and putting it away.

Lord Captain Antiquares sat in silence for an interminable moment, his fingers steepled, then nodded decisively. "The fact that someone has been selling the Treasure to outsiders for ages is grave news indeed, but maybe less important, now..."

He hesitated again, then said "Into the passage again, young ones, and without a sound. You should be able to hear what goes on inside this room from there without being observed yourselves, until I call for you." The three young Hunters nodded in return, and filed quietly into the passage, which rumbled shut.

"Now, Angelica, my dear- go and rouse the privy council, quickly and quietly. If Ethan's cadre gets ahold of this, we could be looking at a bloodbath, both within and without these walls."

"Yes, Grandfather."

Angelica's footsteps receded, and Killua turned to the other two. "Walk very, very carefully." he whispered. "One misstep here, either saying, or doing, the wrong thing, and it will probably be the last mistake we ever make."

Gon nodded without commenting, and Ryozha whispered drily in the darkness "Yeah... I'm getting that impression."

A few minutes later, the sound of shuffling footsteps and sleepy grumbling could be heard.

"Well, Lochaber? What is the meaning of this? There is a battle down in the village- the Bederusseans, if I read the markings on their war machines aright. We would be wise to attend to that before other matters."

"Peacefully, old friend, peacefully. The matter I convened us for is of more importance than even our possible discovery."

There was an excited babble at this announcement, until finally someone managed to shout down the others.

"**WHAT?!** What could possibly be more important than our being exposed to the outside world?"

"The decision on the final disposal of the treasure. We have carried this burden for a very long time, brothers. I believe that it is time for us to pass that burden to others, not for protection and hoarding, but for good use."

Another, larger uproar succeeded this comment, but eventually order was restored. The Lord Captain began to briefly explain Dr. Schrenk's plan. As he spoke, Gon began to glance around nervously. "Something's not right." he whispered.

Ryozha jerked his head around, scanning the area with all seven senses. "Something's com..." he started.

Before he could finish the sentence, all three were wrenched off their feet by a surge of malevlolent Nen and blasted through the thin stone of the false wall.

They scrambled to their feet, staring around. The Enforcer strode through the newly-formed hole in the wall, flanked by several other young Knight-Guardians. "Spies!" he declared dramatically.

"Hold, Ethan." the Lord Captain snapped. "These boys are here under my auspices, and my protection." he ended, letting it dangle in the air between them. The council members stared on in stunned amazement, shock warring with suspicion in their faces.

"Then I declare you to be as weak as the children you shelter, and unfit to lead!" roared the Enforcer, his awful Morningstar in his hand as he lunged for the Lord Captain. The other councilors rose from their seats in protest, but the Enforcer's small squad was on them, weapons in hand, forcing them down again.

The Enforcer and the Lord Captain circled one another warily, the Lord Captain's giant broadsword appearing in his hand. Then, with impossible speed, they closed, weapons glittering with unfettered Nen-power.

Broadsword clashed with Morningstar, Nen-fire flaring too bright to look at directly. They clashed back and forth, weapons weaving a shining web of death around them, as even the Enforcer's hench-Guardians stared in awe, weapons hanging slack in their hands, forgotten.

Then, the Lord Captain misjudged a swing and stumbled slightly. The Enforcer pounced, blurring across the space between them and shattering the old man's spine with a single blow. The Lord Captain folded with a sigh, sinking to the ground in a rapidly collecting pool of blood.

"Your powers are weak, old man." the Enforcer boasted. "Once, you were the master, and I the student. But here, in this place, and this time, I am become the master!" He brought his Morningstar around again, smashing the helpless Lord Captain's skull.

Gon, Ryozha and Killua, meanwhile slowly sat up, fighting to shake off the aftereffects of being blasted through a wall, then, when they realized what was happening, scrambled to their feet and leapt forwards.

Before they could do anything, the Lord Captain, amazingly managed to raise his head long enough to croak "Fly, you fools! If he catches you, I have died for naught!"

The three turned for the door, then Ryozha turned back. "Go!" he whispered hoarsely. "I'll keep them busy." Gon looked concerned, and Killua said "Uhm..."

Ryozha gave them a half-grin. "Like they're gonna catch me." he said with a cocky wink, sliding his headphones on.

Gon and Killua blitzed out of the room, running as fast as they could move. Ryozha scanned the room, most of whose occupants seemed dazed by the speed of the terrible events. "Flight of the Bumblebee" whirled out of his headphones, cranked up as fast as his Nen-enhanced player could manage.

Ryozha appeared in front of one of the Enforcer's lackeys without any apparent intervening motion. "Tag!" he said brightly, "You're it!". He cracked the goon over the back of the head with his staff, the jointed staff curving around him, then disappeared again.

Angelica was already at her grandfather's side, her awesome healing-Nen roaring through her hands into him as she fought through tears to try and save him.

After a few moments, he reached up and touched her face. "Thank you, my dear, but... I am afraid it is too late. I go to join your parents... my love... will stay with you... always... Just as... theirs... does." His final breath escaped as a sigh, and his hand dropped to his side.

Angelica dropped back on her haunches, her head falling back as her mouth opened in a soundless shriek that slowly gathered power, until she was screaming her lungs raw.

The Enforcer came up beside her, ignoring the chaos behind him, and caressed her. "Now that the old fool is dead, I can finally have you by my side, as is right!" he leered. Angelica whipped around, gaining her feet in the same motion, so that she seemed to tower over the smaller Enforcer. Her eyes blazed, and her aura whipped around her, stirring the dust in the chamber into whirling eddies.

What she would have done next was not to be known, though, since Ryozha chose that moment to do his level best to insert his staff into the Enforcer's nasal cavity. The Enforcer let out a sound that was half-roar and half-scream, and lunged at Ryozha. Ryozha nearly screamed himself when the head of the morningstar whistled past his head, moving so fast that the wind-cut alone felt like it was going to tear him in half.

He dodged a few times, just long enough to say "That... would be my exit cue." And with that, he was gone.

The Enforcer dragged one of his men to his feet and slapped some sense into him. "Up, you idiots! Get up!" he yelled. His men slowly staggered to their feet, and he led most of them out, racing after the three Hunters.

Unfortunately for the handful of guards he left behind, the council members had also regained their wits by this point, and made short work of them.

"Now, Sister Angelica- run and sound the alarm that Ethan is trying a coup." Chamberlain Rowan told her, returning his giant halberd to it's normal hanging place on the wall. "We have much to deliberate here- the council must apply all of it's wisdom to this question."

Angelica stared at him in disbelief for a long moment, then stamped over and got right in his face. "You... you... you..." she spluttered, then gained a little control of herself. "The castle is falling apart, the Enforcer is attempting to seize control of the Knight Guardians by force, my Grandfather is DEAD, and you want to hold a DISCUSSION?" she demanded shrilly. "You're nothing but a pack of doddering old fools, who would do nothing but talk as the world was destroyed around them!" she yelled. "Much as you love talk, now is the time to act!"

Chamberlain Rowan patiently endured her shouting, then said "Yes, child. The alarm?"

Sister Angelica stared at him for a long moment, then whirled on her heel, storming out of the room, rising slightly off the floor once she cleared the doors and hurtling down the hallway on giant Nen-wings.

Ryozha had caught up with Gon and Killua easily enough (after getting lost three or four times), and they ran through the fortress together, Ryozha darting ahead to scout and returning to guide them as best he could.

"This place is a maze!" he finally snapped. "This whole stupid mountain must be honeycombed with tunnels!"

"Doesn't matter." Killua said shortly. "If we stop, we're caught and probably dead." They kept running, ignoring the alarm that began to howl.

At one corridor junction, they leapt into a side room as a coterie of Knight-Guardians pounded past. "What's going on?" one of the Guardians yelled over the noise. "Are we going out against that force of soldiers?"

"No!" one of his companions yelled back. "That's the alarm for internal trouble!"

"Great..." muttered Ryozha, as they slipped out of the room and continued searching for a way out, "now the whole place is alerted."

They passed through yet another arched doorway, and without warning, they were somewhere else. They staggered slightly, and when the disorientation cleared, they saw they were in a large galleried room, standing right in front of the Enforcer himself.

The Enforcer gave them a brief grimace that may have been meant to be a grin, and whispered "Do you like the hatsu of the Aerie's builder? The Nen-key to connect any doorway in this fortress to any room in this fortress is a secret that's been handed down from Chief Enforcer to Chief Enforcer for many generations." Then he turned towards the galleries, ignoring them for the moment.

"My brothers!" he called to the assembled Knight-Guardians "Lord Captain Antiquares has betrayed us to the outsiders, and proven that he is unfit to lead. My first act as your new leader will be to execute these spies!" He turned back to the three boys, hefting his fearsome Morningstar, but hesitated when another voice was heard.

"He killed my Grandfather before my eyes!" Sister Angelica's voice rang out. "He has been working with outsiders for years... he fears them not, he just wants power!"

The Enforcer made a small motion, and two of his men moved to intercept Angelica. She shook them off and took to the air, fleeing the room as several of the Enforcer's archers fired after her.

The room erupted in excited babbling, cut off by the thunder of shattering stone as the Enforcer brought his Morningstar into play. There was another rolling crash of thunder, almost as if an echo of the Enforcer's blow, and the castle shook, debris raining from the ceiling.

Gon, Killua and Ryozha moved as a unit ("Dies Irae", from Verdi's Requiem Mass, thundered from Ryozha's headphones), dodging the Enforcer's strikes and counterattacking, Ryozha blurring in low, Gon going for his ribs, and Killua leaping high to release a lightning bolt. The Enforcer knocked Killua out of the air with a single force-blast of pure Nen, grabbed Gon and crushed him tight, and ignored Ryozha, who simply bounced off of him.

A messenger raced in, briefly distracting everyone, as he shouted "The Bederusseans have started to bombard the castle! We are being hit with mortar fire and missiles!" A handful of Knight-Guardians turned and raced from the room, but the Enforcer maintained his grip on Gon, intent on continuing the battle.

Finally throwing a half-choked Gon aside, he whirled his Morningstar around, barely missing Ryozha. Ryozha relaxed slightly as he dashed out of range, then gaped in horror as the chain extended, clipping his shoulder as he was desperately trying to dodge and sending him sprawling. He was saved by Killua slashing at the Enforcer, and raced in again, trying for a battering-ram charge, kinetic Nen roaring around him as he prepared a monstrous pulse of kinetic power.

The Enforcer was knocked flying by Ryozha's charge, flipping in midair to land skidding on his feet. His Morningstar flashed out as the castle shook again, and Killua tried to tangle the chain with his yoyos. They flickered straight through the chain, throwing Killua off balance, and the Enforcer pounced, his free hand grabbing Killua by the throat and throwing him headfirst into the stones of the floor. Gon, who had recovered by this point, leapt back into the fray, only to be batted to the ground by the Morningstar, which had curved impossibly on it's ever-stretching chain, smashing Gon senseless.

Staggering to his feet, Killua leapt again, only to be knocked aside as if he wasn't there by the Enforcer. Ryozha charged in, and was blasted off his feet by one of the Enforcer's force blasts, then pinned to one of the gallery walls. The last thing he saw was the head of the Enforcer's Morningstar.

Killua, his eyes going cold and black, lunged again, hands crackling with fearsome power. The Enforcer's Morningstar intercepted him, lightning grounding harmlessly as the Enforcer's forceblasts pinned him to the ground, then the Enforcer's boot slammed into his chin, and the world winked out.

The Enforcer turned to the galleries to be met with total silence other than the distant thunder of the bombardment. "And now, my brothers, we move ag..." "Hold!" a voice interrupted, anonymous in the crowd. "Is it true that you killed Grandp... the Lord Captain?"

The Enforcer shrugged. "What of it?" he asked negligently. "He was weak and unfit, and deserved to die." At this declaration, heated arguments broke out in the stands, quickly erupting into violence as sides were chosen. The Enforcer ignored it, gesturing to one of his men to take the three Hunters out.

--

Moments later, Sister Angelica circled down out of the shadows of the rafters where she had been hiding. She swore, very briefly, and thought I have to find those boys, or my Grandfather's final wish will never be carried out... Slipping into Zetsu and ignoring the fighting, she flew out rapidly.

Soaring down corridor after corridor, ignoring the continued fighting, she searched, using senses carefully attuned by countless search-and-rescue missions and drills. Passing one particular hallway, she paused. -_Funny... that doesn't FEEL like a Knight-Guardian aura..._-

Aloud, she said "You in the hallway... come out!"

A young girl in a fluffy, frilly red dress stepped out, wringing her hands slightly. "Uh... I'm sorry..." she said, "I was playing in the caves, and I got los... t..."

Sister Angelica was glaring at her. "I know all the village children, and none of them would willingly play in the caves that lead here."

Bisuke straightened up, shrugging. "Should have known that wouldn't work. You seemed to be searching for something, earlier..?" she said questioningly.

Sister Angelica looked at her flatly. "You are a Hunter also, aren't you?" she said, more as a statement than a question.

Bisuke nodded. "I THOUGHT I sensed some of my students pass by here not long ago, although it was nothing but a faint trace." Bisuke said. "Something happened to them, didn't it?"

Sister Angelica nodded. "I think they went this way..." Bisuke said, and with that, their wordless alliance was sealed, and she led Sister Angelica off down one of the many passageways of the Aerie.

--

Ryozha and Killua awoke chained to the wall. Gon lay in the middle of the small stone room, not yet conscious, his hands bound with the same type of chains that held Ryozha and Killua to the wall.

All three had been stripped to their boxers. Killua and Ryozha glanced at one another, but before they had even had a chance to test the massive chains, the door crashed open and the Enforcer stepped through.

He was waving off one of the pages, snapping "Not now, boy. My sport awaits."

Slamming the stone portal shut, he approached Gon, who by this time was stirring a little and moaning faintly. The Enforcer grabbed him and held him at arm's length, slapped him awake, then dropped him.

Gon sat up, and smiled at the Enforcer briefly. "I guess there's no point in asking you why we're here, huh?" he asked.

The Enforcer smashed him across the face with his Morningstar, sending him skidding across the floor.

Gon sat up and spat blood, but said nothing. "I ask the questions here, Hunterling. Who have you told of this place?" the Enforcer demanded.

Gon set his mouth stubbornly and didn't answer.

"What were the clues that led you here?" the Enforcer snapped, smashing Gon across the face again, knocking him flying.

Gon tumbled against the wall, then jumped up, angry. "Kou!" he shouted, swinging a foot blazing with Nen-fire at the Enforcer.

The Enforcer simply crushed him to the wall, pinning him with the sheer force of his Nen. He kicked him in the knee, eliciting a sharp crunch of breaking bone.

"You _WILL_ answer my questions, Hunterling." he said. He struck him again, knocking Gon sprawling.

The beating continued endlessly, each minute an eternity, as Ryozha watched in furious helplessness. The faint creak of metal under terrible stress made him glance to his right. Killua was braced straight out against the wall, tearing at the chains with every ounce of his impossible strength, his eyes cold and bleak as the seventh circle of Hell.

Ryozha shuddered, then his attention snapped back to the Enforcer when Gon let slip a small noise of pain, which seemed to bother him more than being beaten. Ryozha lunged against the chains, blind with rage... only to jerk up short and sag back, helpless.

Much later, Gon lay on the floor in a small puddle of blood, the Enforcer still beating him mercilessly. The creaking from Killua's chains had become a steady wail of tortured metal as the ten-centimetre thick links were subjected to unfathomable stresses.

Over the noise, Ryozha heard Gon make a faint noise, a semiconscious whimpering. Ryozha snapped. He gave an inarticulate growl, a low, feral snarl that tore from his throat as he passed from impotent rage to wrath, cold as frozen crystal. His Nen flared, and the temperature in the small room dropped sharply as he drew in every erg of kinetic energy he could drag from the stone, the chains... the very air of the cell.

He hung in a silent hurricane of Nen, his manacles becoming colder... colder still, until they were burning his exposed flesh. Ignorant of this, or maybe simply ignoring it, the Enforcer continued to batter Gon's barely conscious form, like a vicious cat with a mouse that was long since dead.

Abruptly, the brittle, frozen manacles shattered, tearing Ryozha's half-frozen flesh. He felt nothing, his entire being focussed on the beast before him. He didn't even let himself fall, lunging from the wall in a flat arc, hurling himself forward with all the power at his command.

By the time he was half-way across the cell, he had gone supersonic, and by the time he hit the Enforcer, he was moving at Trans-sonic speeds, smashing his foe through five feet of stone, shattering his own collarbone and snapping at least of his own three ribs.

The Enforcer went sprawling into the room beyond. A heartbeat later, Killua had ripped loose from his half-frozen chains and was in hot pursuit. He raced across the cell, lightning crackling at his fingertips, leaving a trail of blood droplets from his torn wrists.

Ryozha moved in a trance of speed, the world dragging past in agonizing slow motion. The Enforcer brought his terrible morningstar to bear, only to have it run and melt like wax as Ryozha touched it, his Nen roaring through it. Molten metal splattered across Ryozha, blistering his skin and setting his hair and shorts on fire, but he ignored it... no... didn't even notice it.

The Enforcer screamed as molten metal washed over his hand, running down his arm. The scream became a keen as his shocked nervous system was shattered by a bolt of lightning, blasting straight through him, leaving a charred, smoking wound in his chest.

Not satisfied, Ryozha kicked him again, slamming him back the way he had come. The Enforcer plowed to a halt in a heap of rubble, then strained, scrambling to his feet... too late. Killua was on top of him, his hand a terrible blade glittering with lightning, slicing deeply into his enemy's charring flesh, again and again.

Then abruptly, Ryozha was on top of him again, hammering him relentlessly, his feet blurs as he kicked and stomped the Enforcer. He felt something snap in his right leg, and a wash of pain hit faintly, beneath the anger. Killua had already sagged back- the Enforcer was out of the fight; Ryozha was just wasting his energy... or maybe just doing some venting, the other boy wasn't sure.

Ryozha slowly stopped kicking as his energy gave out. He swayed on his feet briefly, then fainted, exhausted, his Nen flickering and dying, as his life force fluttered weakly.

--

Bisuke and Sister Angelica found them there some time later, a battered Killua standing exhausted watch over Ryozha and Gon's unconscious, broken forms.

Sister Angelica made a soft noise of sympathetic pain and rushed to the boys, her formidable healing Nen already gathering in her hands.

Bisuke watched for a moment, then went to check on the Enforcer where he lay beneath a mound of rubble. She checked his pulse, then glanced up warily as another explosion shook the Aerie, jarring dust loose from the roof and loosing a trickle of rubble.

The Knight-Guardian healer sat back, rubbing her eyes tiredly. Gon and Ryozha were still unconscious, but their breathing was easier, Ryozha's burns- both frost and fire- had faded, and Gon's wounds had closed. Killua's torn wrists were partially healed also.

"I have done what I can for them here," Angelica said, "but they will need further attention once I have access to my medicines as well."

She moved to heal the Enforcer as well, but Bisuke waved her off. "He's already dead." she said, "and if we don't get out of here, we're going to be buried alive."

Sister Angelica made as if to protest, then aquiesced as the fortress shook again, the ceiling above them creaking and groaning alarmingly.

She and Bisuke gathered up Gon and Ryozha, and Bisuke grabbed a protesting Killua by the hand. "Argue later!" she snapped, pulling him to his feet and half-carrying, half-dragging him down the hallway as the ceiling fell in.

Killua stared around groggily. "Er... is it just me, or has the shaking stopped?" he asked.

"Not now, Killu... a..." Bisuke started to snap, then paused. "You're right..." she said slowly. "What's..." Before she could finish the sentence, an old Knight-Guardian appeared.

Bisuke glanced across at Killua, who had gone limp in her grasp. She looked questioningly at Sister Angelica, who shook her head.

"He's fine," she whispered, "it's just a side effect of my healing abilities."

Bisuke nodded, then suddenly bulked out, letting Killua slide to the ground as she prepared to charge the old Knight-Guardian.

The old man, however, held up a hand. "Don't, Gem Huntress. I am not here to capture you, but rather bring you a message. Angelica, child. The council may be made up of 'doddering old fools who would do nothing but talk as the world was destroyed around them', but we do occasionally come to a decision."

Angelica blushed furiously, but didn't respond. "We have decided to follow your grandfather's last wishes, and, with the help of these Hunters, we will be able to. Follow me."

Bisuke and Angelica followed him, carrying Gon, Killua and Ryozha.

"Sir…" Angelica began, "What about the shelling?"

The old councilor shrugged. "We may prefer talk to action, but we have not forgotten ALL the old ways- the Barrier Shield Team assembled, and the castle is now protected."

Angelica blushed again, and muttered "You're never going to let me forget that outburst, are you?" The old councilor smiled but refrained from comment.

They quickly reached the half-destroyed council-chamber.

At the door, Angelica paused and said "The fighting has been contained, then?"

The aged council member nodded. "Once those who sided with Ethan but were not part of his inner cadre found out that he cared more for his own pleasures than leading them in battle, they lost heart, and many surrendered. Without that broad base of support, Ethan's core followers were quickly overwhelmed and subdued."

Sister Angelica nodded, and she stopped in the council chamber to speak briefly to the surviving council members (and apologize, much to their amusement). Then she hurried off to the medical wing of the Aerie, Bisuke in tow, to treat the three boy Hunters.

Ryozha awoke to an overwhelming impression of 'white'.

Once he managed to focus a bit more, he mumbled "Great... another hospital bed." He spotted Bisuke, who had just gotten up from Gon's bedside and was coming over to his.

She sat, and Ryozha slurred "Deja vu, eh?"

She laughed at him a bit, then turned in surprise when she heard Killua say "I guess this means our side won, huh?"

Whatever she would have said was cut off by Sister Angelica storming in and pushing Killua, gently but VERY firmly, back to a lying position.

"DON'T try to sit up yet." she said. "At least, not until I've had a chance to che...ck..." she trailed off and literally jumped across the room to force Gon to lie down again.

"I SAID, DON'T TRY TO SIT UP YET!" she yelled.

Ryozha laughed faintly. "Still feelin' kinda muzzy," he mumbled, "but not too bad. That lady must be somekinda super-healer..." He trailed off and drifted off to sleep again.

When he awoke the second time, he felt completely refreshed, and sat up immediately, then winced, waiting for Sister Angelica to shove him back down. When she didn't appear, he hopped out of bed, and, finding his clothes neatly arranged (not to mention washed and mended) by the bed, got dressed.

Gon came in a few minutes later, and Ryozha grinned at him.

"It all worked out, huh?" he asked. Gon nodded, grinning back, and Killua emerged from his alcove, also fully dressed.

Sister Angelica came in just then, and Ryozha zipped up to her. She started faintly, but smiled at him.

"So, what'sthedealany... ways..." Ryozha blurted, slowing down a bit as he trailed off.

Sister Angelica stared at him for a moment, then a light dawned, and she said "Well... the council used the information in your laptop to contact Dr. Schrenk, and representatives from the World Money Council along with Dr. Schrenk herself, are on their way here."

Ryozha nodded. "Er... what about Bisuke?" Gon asked.

"Who cares about the old hag..?" Killua muttered, but nevertheless listened carefully when Sister Angelica started to talk again.

"Well... since she helped a great deal with the cleanup, and she found her way here as well, the Council decided to honour the agreement she made with her original employer, and gave her any five named or name-worthy stones from the hoard, along with her weight in gemstones. Honestly, it doesn't make a lot of difference to the overall treasure... I've only seen it a few times, but it's **THAT** big. She left a few days ago, claiming another hunt had started up, and that she had to go."

"Uhm..." Ryozha said, and Killua abruptly looked a LOT more interested.

Sister Angelica started to laugh, and said "Ha ha ha... oh, don't worry about your share, Speed Hunter, or that of your partners. Oh... heh... no, it's all right. The council eventually decided, after I told them what you told Grandpa about Boss Myoji, that your share would be what Boss Myoji and the Enforcer had stolen from us."

Ryozha, Gon and Killua looked at one another, concerned, but Sister Angelica just smiled. "Don't worry," she said, "they also decided to send a cadre of Knight-Guardians to claim it for you... Boss Myoji is now in the hands of the authorities of the Southern Peace." Ryozha breathed a faint sigh of relief, and Gon and Killua started to laugh.

"What about the soldiers?" Killua asked.

"Well... Bederusse kept them here as long as they could without provoking a war, even after it became obvious their bombardment wasn't doing anything, but Guardania complained, then threatened, and eventually the Bederusseans had to withdraw. They've been gone almost a week now."

The three boys stayed at the castle for a few more days, relaxing and recovering, exploring the ancient catacombs (although they stopped after Knight-Guardians had to be dispatched to find them for the third time after Ryozha had gotten them _really_ lost) and playing on Ryozha's laptop.

On the twelth day after their battle with the Enforcer, Dr. Schrenk and the experts from the World Money Council arrived. "Congratulations, Speed Hunter." she told Ryozha, "You have achieved the impossible."

"Heh... thanks," he told her, "but there's no way I could have done this one alone- meet my partners, Gon Freeccs and Killua Zaoldyeck."

Dr. Schrenk nodded to them gravely, saying "Then the world owes you all a debt of gratitude, Hunters. You may not see the results for many years, but rest assured, there WILL be results, results that will change the world." Gon beamed with pride, and even Killua looked pleased.

Ryozha gave her a self-assured look, and said "If you've got any more fun hunts like this, let me know... this was a blast!"

Dr.Karina Schrenk made an exasperated noise and cuffed him upside the head, saying "Cocky brat.", then grinning at him. "I'll be sure to." she told him.

By the fourteenth day, all three of them had been thrown out of the treasure rooms twice, Ryozha for juggling three hundred and eighty-two gems, coins and gold bars, then stacking treasure so fast that he nearly buried one of the workers, Killua for lifting and moving a pallet with twelve tons of treasure on it and accidentally blocking the door, then electrifying a pile of gold as a prank, and Gon for persistently 'swimming' in the treasure.

The evening of the fourteenth day found them standing on the battlements of the Aerie Fortress, watching the sun set.

"Well... I guess this is it." Ryozha told them. "My Grandfather called- I'm needed back at his School."

Gon, for some reason, looked relieved. "Oh, good." he said.

Ryozha blinked. "What..?" he asked, sounding a bit hurt.

"Oh! No, it's not like that!" Gon protested. "Killua and I got called back to York Shin- our friend Kaito has a hunt for us there, and I was worried that we'd be leaving you alone."

Ryozha stared at him for a while, then started to laugh. "Man, I'm gonna miss you guys!" he said. "Anyways, before we get all mushy, I'll see you in York Shin in a few months, once they've got the treasure there converted to cash- we're all multi-billionaires now, you know that?"

Killua got a cat-like look on his face, and Gon smacked him upside the head.

Ryozha laughed again, called "See you in York Shin!" and left them to their companionable bickering, sprinting straight down the fortress wall and into the gathering gloom, racing for home.

In the shadows of the abandoned, half-destroyed cells, a shattered form stirred, Nen-fire flickering faintly around it. It began to crawl, clanking each time the remains of the right arm hit the floor. -_The fires of my hatred sustain me... I will survive, and I will be AVENGED!_-

**THE END...?**

(AUTHOR'S NOTE: As many of you have doubtless noticed by now, that's _not_ **THE END..?**, as there's a sequel in progress, although it's on hold for a little while while I re-work this one to make it a bit more legible (okay, a LOT more legible), try futilely to fix the grammar, edit plot holes, and fix various and sundry other problems.)


End file.
